Specimen Chub and Roach.

 Today's trip out never nearly happened, as I have come down with a bout of the flu and my body feels totally drained but if there is a sniff of a session out on the river bank then I'll get myself amongst it, within reason of course. Today's weather was lovely and the distinct warmth of spring is starting to settle in and with the coarse fishing season finishing 9 days there isn't long to target the likes of Chub and Roach, so these were my target.

 After a very laboured journey down to my chosen destination I selected to fish for Roach first and I set up originally with a stick float and then a wire stem but both didn't provide any enquiries, so after a 20 minute period I switched over to bread punch and a light feeder with white crumb but this approach also didn't work, I assumed they weren't feeding or in the swims I fished but I know fish move so I upped sticks and moved on up in search of some appealing water.

Under shotted so the bait would balance it out.

 The further I walked up the beats looked better more for Chub than Roach, so I set up a Chubber float rig and fished with a mix of Bread, Meat and Cheese, within 10 minutes I had a good Chub on and tearing off around the weir pool that I was fishing, first fish of the day was landed and it looked good too, my first guess was 5lb but after putting her on the Ruben Heaton's it registered 4 lb 13 oz, a good opener to the session 4 hours in!.

4lb 13ozs Chub, not long left now.

 It took over an hour before I got another indication and this fish certainly was miffed at being hooked, a big lump of bread was the winner and after a very good fight by Chub standards I had a substantial Chevin resting up in the net, wasn't sure if it would be heading towards 6lb, certainly had a good frame, the trusty scales gave me an accurate figure.

At 5 lb 9 oz, these do make trips worth it but a 6lb is here.

 As dusk was approaching and I was still feeling very rough I decided to head back down stream and sit behind a ledgered piece of bread flake and fish the creases and hope that as night was settling in the Roach would start to feed as they hadn't had all day and they were proving very elusive, in all honesty the Chub were more than enough and I'm certainly not greedy by any standards, I just did feel that something could happen during dusk and after half an hour or so the rod tipped bounced a couple of times and then the tell-tale jag-jag fight ensued, it felt good and made several strong runs through the current and it took three attempts to get it into the net and when I saw the Roach I knew it was a definite two-pounder, boy I am a lucky bugger sometimes, as the hook was right on the edge of the mouth and only took a little tension and it fell out, lucky indeed, time to marvel, specimen Roach never get old, always a pleasure to catch them and could catch them for the rest of my angling career quiet happily.

Old Father Redfin, get in......2 lb 2ozs.

Just perfect, need I say more.

 Another 2lb plus Roach takes me now up to 21 fish in 10 years of this bracket the biggest being 2.15 which is still my PB and was set a decade ago on the Thames, will I ever get a 3lber?? who knows but I just love catching Roach and I could have had more but I lost 3 Roach in a sunken tree that was in my swim and my bait ran out as I tried to really get them feeding, it was a struggle today but a great finale, I trudged off to the train station like a zombie and fell asleep on the train and nearly missed my stop, ill!!! pfft who cares when you catch fish like that, all was forgotten until I got on the train. 8 days now, tight lines guys.