For over a fortnight I have been patiently waiting for this morning to arrive, 0430 and it was time to get up, it was raining...collected Brian en-route, it was raining...got to our destination and guess what it was still raining. My target today was the Roach and in previous trips I have seen them to upper-two pounds loitering around the slightly deeper area's, a decent head of Grayling do live in this stretch and can range up around 2lb plus, two of which I have managed last season.
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A fantastic way to spend a morning. |
Fishing this beat is a joy and I decided to start in a pool towards the top of the beat, I began trotting the pool and caught a few Grayling to around a pound, the fight's are so predictable but still I couldn't prevent them from escaping capture, as the morning wore on it was much of the same and by 10am the rain came back again and gave us both a thorough soaking before making way to fairly stable weather, we knew this wouldn't last so I made the most of it, taking over twenty Grayling in under 2 hours was pretty good going and a few Trout also making way to 2lb or so, the Roach though were still proving very elusive and locating them would prove to be the stumbling block.
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Beautiful action, beautiful floats. |
I arrived at a swim where I saw them back in February and plotted up with the view to trot the area to a foam, through the coloured water I could make out the frames of some very large Roach, by large I mean two-pound plus and a few more appeared amongst the weed as I got my eye in, having found them it was a case of now presenting the bait to them whilst combating the 20mph winds and driving rain which was threatening to spoil our day out. After an hour or so I had only bumped one but then out of nothing the float stopped and slipped under, no invitation to strike was needed and immediately I could see a substantial silver body arc up off the bottom, I exclaimed to Brian I had a lump on and he headed straight over to me before I'd even got her in, with the hook clearly threaded through the top lip on the edge I really wanted to get the fish in the net before the hook fell out.
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A typical Grayling in great condition, |
It was one of those catch 22's where I love the fight that specimen Roach put up but equally wished they wouldn't as it doesn't do a lot of good for the nerves, thankfully she did cruise into the net and I knelt on the sodden ground holding a cracking warrior of a Roach weighing 1lb 14oz, not a two-pounder but equally as exquisite, I do love Roach that aren't pristine and fin perfect as I love the individuality and character that battle scars and missing scales creates, pukka!.
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ah, that's more like it, 1.14 of Test Roach. |
I continued to fish amongst a shoal of very big fish but I was to be frustrated by a combination of the Roach's stubbornness to feed and the weather doing it's best to annoy, the weather got so poor that I decided to sit out some time in the hut just to try and dry out marginally, a slight break in the rain saw me head back out quickly before dusk and managed another half-a-dozen Grayling to 1.04 and another Trout. A thoroughly enjoyable day and another lovely Roach to add to my collection.
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