Club match today on the Colne at Uxbridge, had a slight tinge of colour when I walked it yesterday afternoon to decide on the pegging but predictably enough that had gone today and the river dropped 3 or 4 inches over the course of the day.
Really wanted a draw on the backstream but pulled 46/47 towards the bottom end of the main river from the hat (two pegs are too close together to use both so we give a choice of which you fish). After a bit of deliberation decided to fish it from 46 to give myself a longer trot in the clear water and so as not to sit on top of the fish which are usually right in front of 47 below which it shallows right up. Set up 17 footer with a 3 no 4 stick. 20 to 0.10, bomb rod 20 to 0.10 and heavy bomb rod ( barbel in the area) on 0.15. 20 minutes before the off put float rig in to check the shotting and had an ounce dace on the drop on a bare hook. I'm an honest man so it went back.. Started on stick, and had a two dace and a roach in the first twenty minutes but missed a few sharp bites so went down to a 22 on .08, bit of a gamble here , used to be a real chub flier ( actually had my PB of 6-9 from 47) but only the very occasional one here now. Anyway, that seemed to sort out the bites as had another eight dace and perch in the next 40 minutes but no size and all a long way down the swim, and then it died completely. Had put a bit of chop and pinkie in a little inside slack a few yards down the swim, went over it but this resulted only in four whitebait sized roach that went about half an ounce between them.
So, bomb and maggot time. Nothing, so time to just sit it out and stayed on meat or pellet for a good while with the only sign of fish being a little pike that grabbed the feeder on the retrieve while I was introducing some hemp. An hour and a bit from the end saw a chub probably about 4lb drift out from behind some cabbage and drop downstream followed by a smaller one which I didn't see so well so could just have been the pike again.
That's enough for me, picked up the float rod again, changed to 0.13 and started feeding quite heavily with maggot. Half an hour of this and out of the blue had two fish, unfortunately only a roach and a dace, never saw the chub again and no more bites.
13 fish and the four amoebas went 1-3 and nowhere, only one other weight over the pound on the main river with a 2-2 from near the top end.
6-14 of roach won it, then 6-8 mostly dace, then a single chub for 3-10 and an all perch 3-3 so a bit of a mixed frame. Low weights but a bit better than some of us were expecting in the conditions
Checked my old records when I got in and the last time I fished 46 in a match I weighed 1-3 then as well. That was eight years or so ago with the river in flood and my weight was made up of a single shubunkin...