It's not commonplace to start the river season below hydro electric turbines and it certainly showed the change in times from the last time I wet a line here many decades ago. It would have been remiss of me not to start below these giant screws, which turned and whined causing waves to pulse down the stream. I didn't catch anything here perhaps down to it being too choppy for my standard stick approach although I'd like to think I was distracted by imagining how large a bottle of wine those corkscrews could open.
A few swims down was more my thing, fast and fairly shallow around 4-5 feet, I knew bleak would be a problem here though, this was confirmed by a quick chat with a friendly overnighter who had been here since the 16th, telling me how he shone his torch in at night and saw a whole sea of them, whilst my mind imagined this sea of fish glinting romantically in his torchlight it wasn't the sort of shoal I would want to engage with.
With nothing initially showing In my new swim I thought I could have a decent day when the first fish hooked was a roach, trouble was this soon turned into a pike which in turn saw me tying on a new hooklength after a bite through.
A few fish later I hook something a bit better, perhaps a bigger roach or a decent perch, but with a deja vu resounding thump of solidness it was ambushed by yet another pike, this time much larger and after a battle where it went up and down before going mid stream and holding station the hook just pulls, unlike the first jack pike I never saw this one. I stayed positive as it sure wasn't boring, I usually get a ratio of one in three pike in like this so the next one was going to get it, I thought optimistically.
Naturally the pike disappeared for the day which lead to some nice trotting, the float went through like a dream and everything was caught in that sweet spot downstream where it just slowed, a nice hour or so of half decent roach, perch, dace and chublets, nothing big but fun.
Then the bleak arrived, the tricks that I learned on the Warwickshire Avon last year to negate them had held them off for a while but I knew this was futile long term, even so I was able to pick off a few more fish close in whilst feeding further out. However an attempt at drawing the bleak away using hemp backfired, I have often thought the drill of the hemp hitting the surface just draws bleak in, their lateral lines must just send impulses to their tiny brain saying "FOOD" the same way giant corkscrews scream "WINE" to mine .
I needed an excuse to explore anyway so after finishing off the coffee and devouring lunch like a maggot starved bleak I was off on a rove, typically one of the first things I see is the pub by the lock, there's got to be a corkscrew wine related joke there but I was thinking how I had a touch of envy about the couples enjoying a nice afternoon drink, yet if I was over there I would sure be jealous of someone going fishing on the opposite bank, with that thought my glass was half full, although it was water and a not a glass but a two litre bottle which was more than needed on the first warm day in ages.
After pausing to view the lock cut and drink more fluids I happened upon the overflow pool which had no flow but loads of lilies and froth from bubbles coming up everywhere, although I don't think they were fish as I imagined it to be very silty, however I did catch quite a few pristine roach here.
I would have stayed longer and perhaps should have but It always feels a bit wrong fishing somewhere where the water is stationary on the first trip of a river season, instead I roved on, finding bits of inaccessible bank in places or stomping through nettles in others, this is what the start of the river season is all about, sweating buckets, going through high grass and nettles, getting stung, arms in the air, rod tip catching on brambles, all to find somewhere that is 99% likely to be naff, but it's that 1% that gets you doing it every time.
Before my drinking water was gone completely I did find quite a few chub and I'd love to say they were all clonkers, but that was never what this trip was about, although they did need the net, just.
Next time I'm down here I may take the missus and we will be one of those couples in the pub, the rods of course will be to hand as it would be rude not to wet a line on the walk after.
