Bankside bashing

The river looked brown, listless and moribund. So I went after some scaly rod benders. A bit like small wild river brownies. Lovely to look at with so many variations and pull back a a bit. Trouble is, they are so easy to catch so  you do get a bit meh after an hour or so. Won't stop me  going back though.

Yesterday the river still looked a non rain induced brown but it had a bit of flow and life about it so  l set off for an explore. I've had two consecutive mishaps with already cannibalised so slightly small pawls on my Advanta RVS pin so rather than take a bodge stick through the drum lash up I had a Hyperloop 1000 rear drag 'fixed' on the light as the wind Drennan Waggler rod in place of the heavier Specimen rod. I say fixed, the plastic sliding reel fittings haven't shrunk as much a s the cork handle and I need to deploy  a Two Terriers  patented artisan lolly stick as a shim.

No balsam to bash but plenty of rank vegetation to hack down to access likely spots, not that pleasant in the sticky evening heat surrounded by biting and stinging things and no guarantee of  a clear glide once the river itself was reached. Two spots had a few trotting yards but for now at least no comfortable place to sit to fish on a mat so standing it would have to be. Hadn't bought any bread or hemp to tease them up the glide so bites were coming a little too far down the glide for comfort but I didn't have to bat back when I missed. Dace yes, but enough lovely roach like this one to consider it worthwhile coming back to open a gap about 15 yards down.

Dropped down to the next spot, trotting to cover with a bit more pace. Certainly more dace here, with the odd roach now and then.it went a bit quiet and perhaps this was why. Give me a bit of a tussle as well.

I left as the dew began to fall and the azure kingfishers and damselflies melted away. An hour after wine o'clock said the charabanc cabin display accusingly and the Commander in Chief wasn't best  pleased. Who daces wins

Running water.

It's stopped raining, it's warm and the upper river is running clear. Up to Chicken Town and tuck in by the bridge.  Swing over to the clear run, left to right trot, double reds on a #16 B560 . Float stabs under and first Wensum fish of the season. A dace, perfect

Followed up by a picture perfect roach: getting better.

Several more of each before the inevitable brownies muscled in and I upped sticks. 

I'd spotted a familiar looking bog shed door blue rope swing in a first day bagging shot, looking a bit like a favoured swim a hundred yards down. he'd reported chublets so I wasn't quite sure, I've seen  a couple of 2-3lb chub up here that must have been moved a couple of mills in the tradition of some of the old Norfolk Bois like Housego but haven't caught one yet. Not too difficult a swing over to the darker water but a troublesome tree above my left shoulder. A couple of decent dace and this lovely roach and a few brownies.

It was getting hot in the late morning sun so I crossed over Chicken Town bridge to fish the same swim in the shade of a big oak, with a gentle drop in and  right to left (my favoured) trot down into the near cover. Much more efficient and worth wading through the lurking brownies. Some of the roach were the darker variant with distinctive tail lobes I only ever seem to catch up here

 

along with the more typical river roach like this one.

And obviously a shed load of brownies . But no chublets in the few I kept in the landing net for another bagging shot.

I've ditched the rucksack for these sort of sessions and pressed into service my trusty 'huge' bucket much lampooned by the Loafer so I'm bit more mobile now working back to the car.

Last stop before lunch and three trots, three different species.

Lunch was served by Mr Wetherspoon, cheap, cheerful and very welcome it was too. Handy for a post pint fish too,. I hoped to draw some fish out of the mid river cover (inside full of minnows) but they preferred the fast run and were mostly small rudd like this one. 

My enthusiasm dwindled and I spent the last 15 minutes  seeing how feeding influenced behaviour. To the left the eddy  slowed and  single maggots enticed first rudd then dace being taken almost as soon as they hit the surface,  a few more and some made it down to the dead water and the fish kept coming in from nowhere and were more interested in the maggots on the bottom as I increased the feed and for a while after the bait was gone.  Seeds/small amount of groundbait would certainly held their interest for longer.

That swing and the chub  must be a few bends down....

Seasonal change

The rhodos and flag iris are in full bloom on Golden Pond and the fish have taken on a brighter, bolder appearance too. This pair of boilie munching bream an almost pefect before and after example

What nearly did come after this horrendous monsoon (Golden Pond hasn't been this full for several years) would have made a very pretty picture.

As the rain cleared the float dipped and a tench was on, and what a tench  The darkest of greens and a shockingly custardy yellow belly. Hook pulled and it lay head in the silt, just out of net reach, for an agonising 30 seconds before righting itself and surging off in a cloud of silt and bubbles  3 feet of ancestral silt at the end of the staging so no wading this side of the pond. Never mind. A polite cough from a tucked away swim to my right  acknowledged the torrent of foul language that echoed around the valley. I went home. 

Kicking up a stinca

Carp Dad. Phil Foden catches carp. We want to too. OK then but on the float only.  They do pull back you know. They did pull back, five times. Each carp meant 4 grains of corn to be eaten straight from the bait box. A sore wrist curtailed play. They can learn their trade before going to the dark side. And I'm too mean to shell out on day ticket money, or the journey too often...

I had more serious business to attend to. Tench. And I knew just the place. Yes, bream and mudpigs might get in the way now and then but with a view like this  I could put up with a bit of a sacrifice. And no day ticket. Hour and a bit sessions are my allotted windows at present.

First foray on Golden pond was a bit chillier than it looked above. Not much movement until curfew time and a last cast bite. After a quick surge the hoped for tench turned into  a surrender monkey bream. Unhooked in the net  on the pads to save on a bit of slime,

Next pass out and the stages looked a windy prospect so tucked in on the noisy but wind calmed  road bank, close in to cover. A couple of missed bites on my favoured Source mini boilie and bingo.  A much sterner contest and  a lovely fat tench was resting up in the net. Must be the carp boys feed that's fattening them up as I'm  used to them being long but thin..

Last trip back on the staging saw a bream and a carp being lost just near the net (hook pulls) but the return of  a long lost Puddle Chucker; swings and roundabouts as I'd had the fun bit of playing them in.