After all the rains I knew one of my local rivers wouldn't be too high and hoped it would be as high as possible, sounds weird with a lot of waters elsewhere in the country over their banks but these little rivers within the M25 seem to only fish well when they have some flow, for that they need a lot of rain to get moving properly, so I got myself moving to fish the little River Gade as the overnight rains eased midmorning.
The river was running well with little bit of colour but was still shallow as ever, with the average depth between 1-2 ft I set up a small dibber, not the usual float of choice for river fishing but these little things are fun with light line in shallow water.
One no1 shot was all that was needed where I set up but due to the wide tip of the float I could always change to a slightly heavier stick of needed, however these little floats ride the current fairly well, probably a bit pricy compared to a conventional stick but hey it's the Gade, if I snag anything I'll just wade in and retrieve it.
My first spot was in some woods above a fallen tree, anywhere where you can't quite see bottom can be ok so this natural dam made the water back up a little above it offering a small area which could hold fish. Less natural were the many plastic bottles and footballs caught up against it though.
I was into fish straight away which was good, first up was a nice dace which in all reality is the target species here, fishing only a foot deep under a fallen willow was really enjoyable, even more so when I hooked a decent chub, gone are the days when you would get half a dozen from each spot here, nowadays to get just one is a small victory, also when I say decent it was around a pound but it's all relative.
I then worked the float a little deeper each cast until getting to a good two feet before dragging bottom, holding back and picking up some half decent roach which made a change. Despite the colour in the water they had a nice blue sheen to their backs.
As the sun came out its reflection danced on the overhanging branches I was trying to avoid with my rod tip, I was also conscious of not falling in the mud, here's my set up, having a separate stool is so handy in these conditions.
After an hour it was time to move, bites dried up and the water started to clear a touch revealing areas of bottom and a lot of snags I avoided by holding back my little float, I had a good start with nice roach, dace and chub in a swim that's usually a few inches deep.
Next spot was another fallen tree jobby, instantly I was into dace and small chub and it looked like I could catch a fair few here as well, however it was one of those areas where you just feel uneasy, surrounded by bushes which were full of beer cans and the like. Next thing I know there's a youth right behind me mumbling something and looking at my gear, he and a girl sat on a stump in the bushes behind me despite it being wet. It was time to rove on once more.
Working my way upstream I chatted to some workers who were rebuilding the banks to try to stop dogs going in as their flea treatment kills all the aquatic life, Fipronil is it's name and it's wiping out stretches of rivers everywhere. I wished them luck in preventing dogs going into the water in the busiest park in Watford.
I also saw a few new EA signs, trouble is the print was so small you couldn't read them, this one was on the widest part of the river. I didn't fish here as I had to wade into the swim just to read what it said, it just stated that you need a rod licence, it should also have had a postscript 'By the way you have just ruined your swim lol'
Further upstream I find a lot of the river fenced off, regenerating the wetland area was the signage for this one, which makes you worry if that will come with a hide or visitor's centre. It was an area so wild and peaceful it seemed a perfect environment for nature but did have homeless people living in it last time so who knows what that the future holds. I stopped and had lunch opposite.
I then found a lovely spot to wet a line once more, a beautiful narrow glide that was between two sets of high rushes. Wading downstream to a spot where nobody knew I was there, it could have been a carrier for a grayling filled chalk stream somewhere in the middle of nowhere, were it not for the car park in the distance, or all the people on the path behind or the fact that there's no grayling in here, still I can imagine.
It was a cracking looking run with some lush green weed and full of scale perfect dace, by now the river's colour was clearing further and each fish looked massive as they spun and flashed down the bottom of the shallow swim, trying to keep the fish off the surface, a succession of long lean dace were bought up through the unusually fast current.
Typical Gade dace with no weight to them at all, although I swear the ones I got later had more of a belly, feasting themselves on my maggots no doubt, I hoped for a chub or even a roach in this small dace filled hole but only a couple of gudgeon provided the only variety before it became all minnow, which is always a sign to move on.
I walked up to the top of the stretch and retrieved a float from a swim, this got added to the spinner I found earlier, not that I'll ever use either but it's nice to tidy things up. That was it for the day, after packing up I decided to go the direct way back down to the car along the canal, here some of the boaters had made a right mess turning parts of the woods behind into a dumping ground, far too much for anyone to tidy up. The walk took me a whopping 35 minutes somehow along a canal that looked cold and lifeless, the river with all its fipronil coated dogs and weed smoking youth would have been more preferable.
I seemed to do more walking than fishing at times but in three hours I had a decent return of 19 dace, 8 roach, a couple of chub, gudgeon and bleak. I kept on the move and the river for once was moving well too.
