Blown Away.

On Saturday morning I had planned an early morning trip out for some predators and maintain my focus on a 20lb Pike and maybe a bonus 3lb + Thames Perch, so in order to embark on this trip all I had to do was wake up at 4:30am on a brisk autumn morning and go fishing, but unfortunately my body had other ideas and after an exhausting football match the evening before the alarm sounded and was switched off. 8:45am and I awoke without the aide of the alarm and by which time I had missed the best time to go out in search of my Esox so I had to re-buff my plans and decided on going out with the trotting rod armed with maggots to have a go at a few shoals of Dace & Roach.

It took a lot longer to get fishing than usual as the weather tried it's best to curtail the session before it had even began, but I'm no fair weather angler and this sort of blustery wet weather is what I like as not many other anglers would have the patience to withstand the barrage of leaves and constant attempts at mending the line as I trotted downstream to catch my intended target, the wind never eased once in the time I spent out but the rain did abate at times making fishing a little more bearable, when the fishing did take place bites weren't very forth coming with the occasional out of season Trout being banked and although most of the Trout were small to about 5oz, I did catch a couple of larger ones and the biggest being around 2.8/2.12 and in pristine condition, just a shame they are 2 months late but they were ravenous and getting to the bait before the awaiting Roach and Dace could, this scenario played out through a stretch of as much as 2 miles.

13 Trout later I finally caught something without an adipose fin, a Chub it was but not big at 2lbs or so, then I spotted what looked like a monster Barbel of 11lbs or so, with the tackle I had attempting to catch it would have been foolish but my head was saying go for it (I've caught bigger on lighter gear), so I cast out a bunch of maggots and bulked my shot down to keep the bait from moving too fast, then a hard tug followed very soon after casting but that Barbel still remained in position, so whatever I caught was not seen, a fiery scrap was being put up but it was short lived as the culprit came up to the net and a nice Chub of 3.10 lay on the bank, not a Barbel but who cares, by Chub standards it was a strong fight and normally those two statements aren't used in the same sentences, normally a wet plastic bag is more akin to a Chub fight.

Pristine condition.

A lovely weir pool but not much happening.

 As I pressed on downstream I did finally manage to catch some Dace but whatever I was doing they kept escaping my size 16 barbless hook as they approached the net, I lost six on the spin before I landed one and then it turned out to be a Chub......(sigh).......well I landed it, it wasn't really going to plan and my day was just about to get a little wetter as the heavens opened and I was soaked through within a couple of minutes of it starting, by which time I had decided to call it a day as the rain was so fierce it was penetrating my bag and the camera was getting wet, a trip not to forget but not one of my best, but after another good week of work it was nice to be out walking the banks surrounded by nature, a lovely way to spend a Saturday morning and with so many young Trout caught and seen it is very encouraging for the future after all without them there is no future and what a shame it would be.