With three inches of snow melt going into the river the previous day, very bright sunshine and Andy Nellist having arrived after a full night’s blank on the river, expectations were pretty low for the day to come. After meeting up at my house for a cuppa the three of us Andy Nellist, Tim von Seld and me set off down to the river. Once we had arrived Andy started grinning from ear to ear at his first look at a new stretch. His first comment was that it was a lovely looking stretch of water. We decided to head upstream to a small lock cut where I had seen some good-sized perch a few weeks before. I gave Andy the choice of swims, after all he was the guest. He quickly chose a swim in the mouth of a lock cut and Tim and I set up together in a swim about 15 yards downstream. After a couple of hours all we had to show for our efforts were a couple of sticks, some slightly stretched maggots and a half eaten lobworm, we decided to move to a weirpool further upstream which I had never been to before but heard good reports about producing both chub and barbel. On the way we looked into the lock itself to find it absolutely stuffed full of bleak which probably explained the lack of perch. Then on to the weirpool while Andy told us of fishing Dick Walker’s stretch of the Great Ouse, stories of fallen and overhanging trees where monster chub lurked. On arriving at the weirpool Andy was grinning once more as he looked at the stretch with its fallen and overhanging trees downstream of the weir and a very large slack right by the side of the weir itself. Another couple of biteless hours fishing the big slack were abruptly halted by an animated strike from Andy as his tip bounced and he went from sitting on the bank to lying on his back. A bow wave shot to the left, downstream, as Andy ran up the bank to his right in an attempt to stop the unseen fish from disappearing behind a tree.
A minute or so later and Tim slipped the net under a perfectly formed very wild brown trout about 12 inches long. We were all grinning now as a couple of photos were taken and the fish placed in the net and lowered back into the river where it promptly turned upside down. A while later spirits dipped a little at the loss of such a beautiful looking fish but we decided to leave it in the net, as it would at least keep it fresh. Shortly after, Tim opened his account as his lure rod doubled over right to the butt and he eventually landed a fine specimen wooden pallet. It had fallen to an Ondex spinner and put up a great fight in the turbulent weirpool, hugging the bottom right into the bank. We fished on for a further couple of hours but no one had another bite and as 4pm approached it was time to pack up. Looking down into the landing net we found the trout had once again righted itself and with smiles all round we released it back into the river. Tim and I fished on I decided to fish a small cage feeder containing mashed bread, with single red maggot on the hook on one rod for the roach and a big lobworm on the second rod in the hope of catching a perch.
After an hour or so and a couple of very small roach less than an ounce each, the feeder hit the water but instead of the tiny fish swirling about on the surface as had happened before they all jumped in a circle and there was a large swirl containing a very bright orange fin. I immediately recast the lobworm next to the feeder and began to flick thumbnail sized pieces of mashed bread over the area. The quivertip trembled twice then pulled down about an inch on the lobworm rod. a quick flick of the rod tip and I was into what seemed a nice sized perch. After a brief fight I found myself hanging over the edge of the bank to hand land a nice perch. I really must remember to set my landing net up next time. The perch weighed 2lb 3oz and provided a very satisfying end to a season on the river. With that we packed up and headed off home. For me at least it was goodbye to another season on the river. But I had to stop for one last look before we left. |
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