I had missed the start of the river season by at least a month, visiting Dad in hospital had taken it's toll and I just needed the wet a line and wander down a river, any river. Feeling out of shape both physically and mentally I wanted to find peace and quiet and be comfortable, so I chose the upper Ouzel with maggots that had been in the fridge for a few weeks, finally I got to use them.
Now a river couldn't get more 'upper' than this as the little river Ouzel starts barely a few hundred yards upstream in a spring in the foothills below Whipsnade Zoo, it then fords a road and trickles away very slow and full of weed. It's narrow enough that the local wallaby escapees from the zoo could hop it no problem and is usually the pace of a sloth, a sloth awarded slowest at the sloth olympics, the most coveted of all sloth prizes. Therefore I knew after clocking a few fish in some holes that pinging out a maggot freelining would be the best bet, hopefully for a few fish and a bit of fun for a while. It was old school fishing and I couldn't wait to stretch my legs on a sunny day.
I freelined a size 18 with a no8 to sink the bait on 3lb line, it was that simple, the rest was stalking, crouching and watching fish movement and their interaction with my feed. The trout pictured is one of two rainbows I spotted, the first having given me a right old fight before shedding the hook whilst I was after perch. Before that I had some rudd down the bottom of the small stretch and some little chub up the other end, wandering up and down like a kid, my bait wafting slowly through the depths each time. In between I pursued the perch which were surprisingly cagey, managing a few which really punched for their size and showed their colours.
With nothing fixed on the line everything is so crisp and direct and the fish feel much larger than they really are, another fun aspect is that you can try to select which fish you catch and among the perch was what I thought was a lone roach, which I finally tempted as it dashed around between the stripeys. A hybrid no doubt and I think it's roach/chub judging by the size of the mouth.
I bypassed a clearing in the weeds each time that had four jack pike sitting there like a mini flotilla of warships, even though they were small it was quite an impressive sight, this could also explain the absence of roach in the river in the vicinity both upstream and below.
Finally I had an encounter with the other rainbow trout, the larger one, a long lean looking fish, I just couldn't resist having a go at this fish. Funny thing is it totally rejected my turmeric/curry flavoured maggots earlier having taken the first one then rejecting all that followed, it was as if it was turning it's nose up at a flavouring I had concocted over years of fishing, a blend of spices so fine and so tuned yet this trout was like a Frenchman who had not got a vintage wine but was offered prosecco from Tesco's. How weird I thought, a trout with discerning taste?
You learn something new every day when fishing but I wasn't expecting to be schooled by a trout on maggots. I had to find out if taste matters to...well trout, so I ditched my spicy mix, cleaned the bait apron and put fresh maggots in, when I say fresh they were anything but so I gave them a spray of liquid Scopex, a recent addition to the flavour armoury. The result was amazing as the turmeric adverse trout was mopping up the new Scopex ones without a care. Different species like different flavours but so do individual fish it would seem.
It wasn't long before the surface erupted with rainbow colours. I tried valiantly to keep it in the small clear area but that wasn't going to happen with my gear, luckily the fish went above the dense weeds and not through them when on it's runs, had it been a tench or chub it would have been a different story. It was all splashing and chaos but all I could think was how good it felt to get a real bend in the rod, for the first time in ages, It was not my quarry when leaving the house to go fishing today but it was so welcome. Rainbow trout are such a pretty fish but ugly at the same time, they would do well in poorly lit discos I concluded.
I slipped my femme fatale back guestimating somewhere between 2-3lb, I had the whole river to myself as not many choose to fish it as they understandably prefer the tench and trout pools and whilst I only caught a dozen fish it was a lot of fun for a couple of hours. I finished off on the adjacent pond and only caught one perch before the first heavy shower made me hunker down even though the sun was out. More dark purple clouds were about to block the sun big time forcing me to pack up before getting drenched but as soon as I had, the sun was back out.
With more heavy showers looming I had no regrets on packing up but the only rainbows I saw today were from the river.
