Gift horse

Friday's weather looked ok for the for the afternoon so I planned to drop off parcels and have a coffee with Eldest then head off to explore the Upper Yare, where I haven't wet a line for  a while in the hope of some chub but a large dump of snow meant the parcels weren't accompanied by a bucket of liquidised bread (too cold to get hands wet with mash).it was a slow drive with quite slippery conditions as the snow had settled.  Enough to make Eldest fret about getting to the station but coffees done the snow stopped and the promised sun emerged. Stopped off  to check the river nearer to home and level and pace not too bad and angler free. 

Late lunch, chores done then off again but with maggots and just in case corn instead of bread. Aquarium swim as I could stash gear and shelter in copse if something blew in off the the North Sea. And I wanted to see if the roach were still in residence. Slow going, just one dace for my efforts before a heavy dump of hail hit and I had to take shelter. Possible cormorant damage, they have been seen hunting in this effective fish trap cul-de-sac trap before.

Moved down the lock to the gate once the hail had swept through. A serious piece of engineering that must only now be for flood alleviation given the low set footbridge spanning the lock. My companion from the last visit had been fishing tight to the gate with good results. I got bites straight away but was hampered by the overhanging branches (he had been using a shorter rod) and the accumulated debris and hail floes but there was a small branch free area to my left and I could fish more effectively though a prolonged snow shower had me scurrying for cover once more. More dace followed including this strange shaped one and an indeterminate. Perhaps the indeterminate was undecided fin-wise but I suspect it was a chublet .

But yes , the roach were still there, and in good numbers too. Some were showing signs of cormorant damage, others not but all required a net. Lovely seeing the flash of silver and red arising from the depths when they are hooked

The best was this absolute pearler amid the vast whiteness of snow...in my defence it  melted quicker than the earlier hail.

I finished off with a chublet

I had had a handful of brightly marked perch too, and a bigger one that didn't make the net but thrice the fish packed by the gate were sent flying.  A livebait rod will accompanying me next time. I  hope I can get some smaller livebaits in case the attackers were perch. Though a biggish perch will tackle quite a decent sized livio.