Trotting For Surprises.

 My last day off of work for the week and with the weather being very pleasant too I could not resist the temptation of going fishing for a part of the day, with most of my recent sessions being used to target specimen lake Bream I thought a brief change of emphasis would do me well, so I packed very light and went trotting for a couple of hours and let's say one thing.........just when you think a river could not throw up another surprise, another curve-ball is hurled into my face.

 On today's agenda was pretty much anything that swims of any size, but I had a particular feeling for the Gudgeon, a species of which that I am fairly fond of and not for fighting qualities as you could imagine, my local rivers were once paved with them, a time when you could almost do what Chris Yates and Bob James illustrated on Redmire, a 100 Gudgeon could easily have been done and some would be heading for British Record proportions and I'm convinced that there were or still are potential record breakers here, but today's session was simply to catch some.  My swim of choice was a lovely deep pool at the foot of a small weir and towards the tail end of the pool is a sandy/gravel bed that stretches for about 20 foot, this was to be where I would do most of the trotting and first blood was a spirited little Roach of 5oz or so in great nick.

The little redfin.

 I had spent around 20 mins trotting after the Roach before I got another take but this was certainly larger than a Gudgeon or Roach unless it was a monster, but the identity of the fish became apparent fairly quickly, a nice Trout continued to squirm about in the strong current and it took a couple of attempts to net it, when I got a surprise, what I first thought was a Brown Trout turned out to be a Sea Trout, a species of fish I have only ever once caught before, this was far bigger than the one I caught on the Royalty last season, I didn't waste time getting a couple of snaps and weigh it before slipping it back into the swirling cauldron from whence it came.

2lb 2oz, my first PB of the day.

 I sat there on the bank wondering when it arrived as it was still perfectly silver and sporting a couple of fresh nicks with not an ounce of fat on it, but if the first one had me stumped then you guessed it I caught another one and even bigger than the first, both of which were taken on a small piece of bread-flake, the larger one was much more powerful and you could tell it was bigger, a quick flash in the deep water was enough for me to reach for the net and be prepared for when it did give up, on a size 12 barbless I hoped I had a good hook hold, after a short time later another Sea Trout lay in my net, I'd caught a PB just 10 minutes earlier and now I had another PB.

 This fish in particular still had sea lice on it which were duly flicked off, unbelievable to think that this fish has probably only been in the system a matter of a day or two, extremely happy to have caught these, the second one was also a personal best at 3lb 5oz, unreal what these rivers can throw up, I was certainly surprised.

 After the second Sea Trout the weir pool went strangely quiet and it took me an hour to take heed, later on in the afternoon I carried on trotting and lost a couple of Dace, but did get in connection with a small Barbel which gave a good account of itself.

Immaculate little Barbel of a couple of pounds.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Terrapins.