I woke this morning with an invite to go zedding on the Trent but there was someting telling me it could wait a while as I had been toying with the idea of a little urban greyling fishing in the centre od Sheffield as the river is back to normal levels after the recant floods.
What better time , winter, post floods, both go well with the species so a quick "ask" of my nieghbour if he would like to join me and an hour later we were both riverside armed with minimal float gear and maybe a half pint of maggots each.
The river here is still pretty shallow , the upper city reaches are fairly pennine in character so three foot of depth is about maximum.
Two maggots on an eighteen , a few freebies and we were both away.
The plan was to swim jump each other after maybe a half hour in each swim then walk back to our starting point and work back down.
Third trot down and the tiny "sight bob" float sails away in the gin clear water and tho hooked the fishe comes free--- sugar !!!.
No worries as soon after I land a lovely fish of some nine inches while my nieghbour does the same.
A move and I had three more about the same size , each one swimming accross the river into even stronger water to increase its chance of freeing itself, great stuff.
At the end of the reach we were near a bridge with fast angry water but we still did ok but just below us was a guy fly fishing who did marginally better with a home tied shrimp --- something I will definately be doing with my own gear at the first opportunity -- brilliant guy to watch -- a real expert and a joy to witness.
I had a short chat with him as he was walking upstream and it turns out we knew of each other from some forty years back, nice to know all the old timers are still out and about, a big ex matchman with many an open win on fenland who as put away the course gear in favour of the trout gear.
Anyway, I ended up with six greyling, a couple lost and several bites in between to keep us both interested, my mate had eight.
The river here as been developed over the last few years into a green corridor thro the town centre with good footpaths, seating for folk to rest and all with good, easy parking.
Not the prettiest place to fish as its all surrounded by heavy industry but its all in the eye of the beholder.
But, with superb greyling, dace, chub , trout and the odd Barbel guess what --------
Its all free !!!.
