New horizon.

Yesterday was bitterly cold.  I looked at Spoons but the river was low, clear and no fish to be seen. Up to Chicken Town. 15 minutes in Bog Shed Door Blue Swing but the cold got the better of my extremities. There were some brownies under Chicken Town Bridge (decent ones too), that chased the loose fed reds but even if the thought of getting my hands wet was unthought-of actively targeting out of season troot was beyond even my pale. A pint and a Blue Light discounted loaded pulled pork fries made the trip bearable.

The 'Man' owed me two and a half hours and as my last job today was a stones throw from a free  stretch on another river (and the dash temp said 8C) the rod stashed in the boot came out no sooner than the out of office went on.

Hoping for dace but not disappointed with these two chub on trotted reds. And the 'Man' still owes me an hour. And look, no gloves required. And got some snowdrops in.

 

Using my loaf (ish).

Rain forecast for Sunday afternoon so unusually I packed an umbrella and headed for the top of the top stretch and worked a 25grm cage feeder with liquid white and alternated flake and three reds. Bites but none hit. Found a few fish for the waggler another day. Didn't rain either.

Minging Monday saw me back on the Pastons stretch and I went trotted flake in the clear water. Bites , but I guessed they were small fish. Double reds proved it. Fish, but no challenge though I haven't had a dace for a while up here.

Hands getting painful, and  a nasty cold wet mizzle. Might as well try the glide before the charabanc.

Looking up the Pastons, the pop of the pollards providing colour in the bleakness.

Downstream was the glide looking as grim and dour as it felt.   

Fair pace, but a steady pace. Bite on reds and the next two trots produced these two beauties, before a massive tangle and freezing fingers forced me off to the charabanc, heater full on. I'll try again, a few yards up stream to get a longer trot in the slightly deeper scour. Small things can make a big difference.

 

 

 

On the straight and narrow

Haven't fished between the Paston family pools for some time now. River fairly full but steady and I wondered if I could find the roach. Bites on double reds from the off , they wanted it low and slow so bite/dragging hard to distinguish. Found one area of the short glide where the Avon went through just right, and picked up three fish in quick succession before bites tailed off.

Moved down 20 yards but only got bites way down (the lurking otter perhaps), hooked just one and what a belter it was.

Enough for me to move down where the bites were coming, and another three roach in fairly quick time before the cold got the better of my fingers with a tawny taking over from a drumming woodpecker in the poplar stand and the corvids gathered for their nightly congregation. doubt many of these have felt a hook before, fresh as newly minted coins. All hail the winter roach.

Lost and found

Walking back from my previous quick session on Roach Stretch on Sunday I found a clip on fishing towel that I hadn't realised I'd lost the session before that. A result of sorts. Commander in Chief had Cartrouble (Parts 1 and 2) so no far flung foray for Monday. Checked the Mecca which was rammed  as expected. Decided on a couple of hours on the Aquarium, finding a chucked in the bushes bodged up but useable Shakespeare Magnum Multi Feeder rod on my way round. Something then caught my eye ticked away in the crook of a tree with a split trunk apart from the yellow of a discarded  corn tin.  A small work in oil on board of Blickling,  Autumn 25 with a line from Romans 1:20 on the back. I may keep it or put it somewhere for someone else on a finding streak.

 

Had several roach, netters mostly, though none to quicken the pulse when hooked 10 feet down but no dace or chublets. Pleasant enough.  

Storm Chandra has chased Storm Ingrid off this morning, it's windy but not as wet as expected. I might venture out in a bit just in case. 

Bits

It's been cold and grim this last week or so, even with my new big padded bib and braces and coat but not wet luckily when I've been out in them. A few nice dace and roach from the Aquarium, a few kerfuffles from preds didn't result in a take on a cobbled together dyson but at one point the liphooked lively went ballistic.

A dour afternoon when I hit my only bite but the decent dace shed the hook and no one else had a bite on the short stretch.

The next time out (yesterday) was short and nigh on dusk. Half an hour's fruitless trotting

and out with  a 15g mini cage feeder with liquidised white and three reds on a #14 saw an instant bite then more. Hit the fourth as they were a bit jangly and the satisfying feeling of a fish on. Not massive but a roach from Roach Straight. Just on last cast time (couldn't see the tip any more) an otter made it's way up the near margin. the rod must have caught it's eye, it looked up, saw me and and absolutely shat itself. Never seen such a panic. I must have been hunkered down and blending in as 4 slobbery mutts had been in my bread bucket in the short time I was there as the owners hadn't "seen" me. Hard to believe given my bulk.

Chunky's for a pint and a half of reds for tomorrow and a quick look at Broadland's winter mecca. These two bagging with some decent rudd, roach and big skimmers, just 3 or 4 rods out on the waggler. must be stuffed down there.

Even less time today so back up Roach Straight, just the light feeder rod deployed, I was going to put a 1oz tip on but didn't. After more "blending" in (commented on positively) the second cast resulted in the 2oz tip pulling round nicely and another Roach Straight roach was in the net. Pristine on both sides this time.

I'm really tempted to head to Mecca tomorrow as it's just down the road, but Mondays are normally rammo (I may set up a 15ft waggler road just in case) so it's probably a longer trip to either the Suffolk 'Test' or the Lark. Tuesday looks super grim.  

Streamy runs

No, not curry related. Fed up on my local plodding stretch and a broken Matchman Hook Tier I sacked it off and went to my local tackle shops for a replacement and fresh bait. Angling Direct: no, we don't stock those. Chunkys: I'll have a look on my desk. Sadly he'd given his last two away. Good maggots though and always a full pint.  Found my last  one back at home. Amazon or EBay next stop for a couple of spares 

Now able to tie some hooklinks I set off for the upper Wensum for some flow. Too many minnows but had a few roach and dace, one of which I weighed to set a bench mark. 7oz as guessed. Cracking species the dace.

Rain set in so Plan B. Spoons brekkie and a pint of Abbott for under a fiver.

The rain eased off so headed up to Chicken Town but water low, some decent trout and dace hiding above the bridge in a thicket so had a walk up above the bypass. The horses were a pain  standing on my net pole, trying to get at the bread. Even more arrogant than swans and a whole lot smellier. Will have to distract them next time. 

 

Magic of the FA Cup

 It's 3rd round weekend. Any thing can happen right?  City at home to League 2 promotion aspirants Walsall. Fuelling up stop off at the Murderers  as per tradition. Two pints of Wolf Brewery Murderers Ale went down nicely. 3 more stamps required for a free pint. Very cheesy cheesy chips too.

Top two tiers closed but a healthy Walsall away contingent meant a near 'sell out' at just under 20k and thankfully the rain mostly held off as we were three rows back in the old River End.

A near perfect demolition of Walsall whose only attempt on target was a spectacular shot. Again some cracking wing play and only heroic defending from  the Saddlers prevented a cricket score. A hat trick from big man Makama showing want away Soccer Ball Sargent  how to do it. Cowardly agent inspired game eve text making himself unavailable. Shades of Johnny Rowe. 

Can't beat a game under lights even in what is mostly a library of  a ground. Apart form the limbs for each goal the stand out crowd  action for me was the Walsall fans response  to a prolonged  spell of Norwich possession: We want the ball, we want the ball, we want the ball, we want the ball. For quite some time.

And finally the most blatant palming down of the ball from  a cross in the six yard box, clearly visible and audible to the ref who waved it way. Plank

Tipping the balance

Enthused by Monday's  chub session I ditched the pike rods at the last moment reasoning that though the river was running clear the overcast conditions were maybe enough to entice the Bure chub to wake up early given it's reputedly a 'night only' water these days.

Baited 4 swims with white gold, starting off with this top of the stretch swim, unusually accessible  in the low conditions. Flake on a wide gape size 6. Indications from the off. Seemingly smaller fish though crays do infest this stretch, a few more definite pulls but time ticking, marked this swim down for a trotting recce.

Indications straight away next swim some 50 yards down Cyanide Straight then one nailed on chub bite missed. Given the interest in this swim decided to carry on and bingo, powerful fish on which surged for the nearest snags, jagging heavily away. Disaster, hook pinged out. The passing Noddy Train passengers must have heard my despairing shout. Chub here can top seven pounds and that had been no chublet. No point crying over spilt milk. Two swims with plenty of activity and one less so but still bites without going SAS pellet and boilies. Have some faith and persevere.

Loafer and I are off to pastures new Tuesday to recce: rod and no Sherpa required bare minimum panning for silver and bronze. I have just the roving vest for it. Might be a bit noisy if Uncle Sam's boys and gals are up and at it.

Sabotage

The Loafer had found some roach topping at dusk and primed a few areas and after sending me  (honest) the wrong way at the bridge (his hundred yards are often half  a mile) I found him wielding his latest rod, a 15 foot Cadence 

with  a chub already in the bag, 

but no roach or dace. We pondered on the effect of the cormorants possibly keeping them tucked away, even in these perfect trotting conditions. So much so that I soon jacked in  the trotting and managed to miss one nailed on chub bite on flake, had a pull round after lifting the rod to let the flake swing in which was on briefly then a decent chub that was properly on  but shed the hook just as I was thinking where to net it. This after a period of finding it hard to cast as far as I wanted. We'd been talking about getting old and Loafer mentioned threading the line through the gap in the tip ring and not the eye itself. We checked my quiver tip and lo and behold the exact same thing. How bizarre, then it dawned on me that during my last loaf squashing debacle down on the Stour the Loafer had re-rigged my rod....

Loafer had one similar sized chub trotting flake but nothing on maggot till I started to get roach  twitches on flake, a couple of fish topped and he had a small roach, all on dusk. We could hear the bastard cormorants laughing at us..

Solstice all tied up

Just a half hour yesterday at Noddy Bridge, mainly because I'd whittled  down the 4lb Maxima on my pin  enough for the double  blood knot  to be a pain for the first few yards of the trot but I managed a dace and a chublet to mark the shortest day.