Something possessed me to get the pike rods out yesterday. Which I haven't done for ages. Up past our stretch and some nice looking bends. 4 buzzards wheeling and mewing over that copse. Kestrel food sharing courtship behaviour too on the floodplain behind me. Very mild and no wind. Gloomy though.
One day of no rain forecast for Saturday so headed back to The Pastons to see if I could find the roach. First trot and the float buried. It's pacey here and the fish felt a bit better than it was but still a lovely roach. I was sitting by an otter midden and the discarded clacky claw seemed apt to add a touch of red to match the eyes and fins.
That was it, tried holding back, running through at current speed and dragging and under shotted float to no avail. Moved up twice and found a few smaller roach but my trip ended when a passing Bruno knocked my big green bucket with bait, floats, shot, scissors etc. into the river. Luckily the camera strap got caught in my chair and my camera didn't follow. Bruno didn't need to be on a lead apparently as it had good 'recall'.
Pissed around Monday doing 'things I should be doing on my day off'. One thing I probably wasn't expected to do was have a pint in the Goat. Very nice it was too.
Proper rain not due till later. I loaded up the charabanc and headed a quarter of the distance travelled yesterday up the third river valley in my locale. Diminutive in it's upper reaches, thus less likely to flood for long until nears it's bigger sister in the city limits and eventually to the chagrin of 'Careful Wilson' as described in his Where to Fish in Norfolk and Suffolk takes over the bigger sister's mantle all the way to Breydon Water and the North Sea.
Chastened by my master class in incompetence yesterday I stopped off to pick up a 10' pellet waggler rod to use in tight spots in future. The river was up but not boiling so plan A below the charming red brick bridge in the chubbier part of the small stretch with a lump of flake on a wide gape 6 and 2SSG on the link. Primed 3 spots with white gold, then back to the first swim . Missed two pulls and one that didn't develop. Dropped down to this pearler of a swim. Go on, X marks the spot.
Met up with the Loafer way up the A11 in the land twixt Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex. When the gloom lifted slightly the land had an almost Dales like feel, with villages tucked in steep valleys with spate channels running through them. I came most unprepared with a cobbled together 13 footer and as a consequence only caught in fits and starts. Mostly trees and brambles. The fish were in perfect nick, with a rudd/roach brace and the loveliest dace, one or two bearing the sandpaper rough skin and swelling bellies that denotes spawning not far away.
The 'wider' main river
The tributary.
The Loafer, wielding 'local knowledge' and a 10 foot Lobkin imagined cut down and waders smashed it as per. Chub, roach but mostly dace, the second venue in particular a fish a trot in the bottle green pools and bends, a good 8 feet below the bank in places. Fantastic fishing. If you can hack standing to fish, which I struggle with. Worth the drive when other rivers are in the fields. You can never beat a days fishing with a lifelong fishing mate and always good to knock a self-appointed angling guru off their pedestal. The 5G Theorist: 30 minutes of flat earth shit one wag had it. Cracking day as always Loafer.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
