Never having been one to rush in to things, not for me is sitting by the river bank on the 15th of June at 11:59 waiting like an eager virgin to get my rod in. So it was not until 24th of June that I managed to drag myself away from the comfort of commercials and back on to the river.
So having finally made plans, I’m getting back on “My River”, the River Rother that runs through the south of Sheffield. It’s a hot sunny day, but the swim I’m going to fish offers plenty of shade so I’m hoping for a fish or two.
My plan is to fish my first choice swim for a couple of hours and if there is no indication of any fish move on. If I do catch then after a couple of fish I’ll move, I’m only going to stay if I’m getting indications that the fish are there.
Arriving at my swim I looked at the water before me, having never fished this swim before, I decided that there were 2 areas that looked good to bait up, one either side of an over hanging bush directly in front of me. The Rother here is a small river, no more than eight to ten yards across and with a slow flow so I threw in a few handfuls of pellets into each area with the plan of drawing any fish out from under the far bank bush.
With the swim baited it was now time to make a phone call I needed to get out of the way before fishing, it would also give time for the fish to settle on the bait. I made the call but it went straight to voice mail – damn, I’d have to try later.
So time to set the rod up, simple ground bait feeder set up and as I’m doing this I hear an encouraging “splosh” as a fish crashes in the baited area to my left. This happens again twice, once to my right and again to my left. Full of anticipation I make a couple of casts to get the distance right and clip up the line. Now time to load the feeder with halibut ground bait and a few pellets, hook bait is a 10mm halibut pellet on the hair and that’s it. First cast of the new season into the water to my left.
I make a couple more casts in the first 5 minutes to get a bit more bait into the area then sit back to watch the tip. Throwing a few more pellets and a couple of balls of ground bait into the area to my right to keep up the interest.
Now let’s get that phone call out of the way.
Mobile in hand and about to dial when I spot the tip twitching, the phone is back in the pocket and the tip stops moving, phone back out and “twitch twitch”, phone in pocket tip still. This scenario continues for some 5 minutes – I reel in and recast only to find that every time I pick up my phone the fish take an interest and loose it as soon as I put the phone down.
“Sod it” I mutter and make the call, no sooner had the person on the other end answered than the rod twitches twice and then loops round in a satisfying curve and I’m left trying to stop a good run from the fish whilst sounding calm and relaxed to the person on the other end of the phone. The fish dives under the overhanging bush and the line goes solid.
I end the phone call as quickly as is polite, all the while cursing myself for not reeling in before making it and hope for the best, but I know from the way the line is feeling that I’m connected to nothing more than wood. A quick pull (on the line you lot) and I reel in a small branch.
I check the hook is still sharp and recast telling myself that the culprit was a small chub and not a large barbel and convince myself that because the small chub and not large barbel did not splash about in the swim it won’t have scared the other fish off for too long.
Half an hour goes by with no other signs of fish and I’m beginning to fret. I’ve been spraying maggots into both areas of the swim I’ve baited as a back up and throwing 6mm pellets in to the right hand swim so I switch my pellet attack to this part of the river.
Straight away the quiver tip is twitching and my hand is hovering over the rod like a gunslinger from Wyatt Earp at the OK Coral, but each twitch refuses to develop into a proper bite.
Another half hour goes by and still no bite so I decide, using my extensive fishing knowledge, that it’s chub taking the pellet in their lips on the hair and not taking the hook in their mouths. So I decide to switch to a maggot feeder with double maggot on the hook with no hair rig set up. (This genius decision is founded on what I’ve read and seen on TV about chub and no great insight on my part).
10 minutes later and I get a classic drop back bite. I’m playing my first fish of the new season and pretty soon a chub of around 3lb is in the net and I’m giving myself a pat on the back for making the switch to maggots (I really should get my own TV show with angling skills like these.)
I decide now is the time to rest the swim and have a quick cuppa and a bite to eat, remembering to clean my hands on some antiseptic, antibiotic wipes I carry – never can be too careful when fishing that you’re not transferring any disease from hand to mouth. As I sit back I watch as a dart of metallic blue and orange flies past and the Kingfisher settles on a branch about 20 yards down stream, then 5 butterflies, the colour of which I’ve never seen before, flutter around the bush on the opposite bank.
Back out with the maggot feeder into the same part of the swim and sit back to throw a few pellets over where I lost the first fish, and to throw a few maggots down stream into a third part of the swim that I may try later.
With no more bites after 20 minutes I switch back to the pellet attack and cast back to the area I lost the fish from, but again it seems to be chub not swallowing the bait that’s causing the indications on the rod tip (oh my watercraft is second to none.) So, I return to the maggot hookbait and sure enough my reward is another chub of around the 3lb mark
(Keith, if you want me on Tight Lines do get in touch. Bob Roberts, if you want any guiding on the Rother I’m your man).
Now it’s decision time – I’ve taken 2 fish from the swim so do I stick to my original plan and move to another swim or stick it out (all together now “Should I stay or Should I go?”) With 2 hours remaining I climb up the bank and look into the clear water below and spot a couple of chub on the far bank (they weren’t literally on the far bank otherwise they’d be dead) in only a few inches of water so I decide to stay.
Another 20 minutes pass and the fish have wised up so I switch to the float and attempt to trot double maggot down stream. I get a couple of chub (or the same chub twice) follow the maggot in as I retrieve the float at the end of the trot, but this the only action I get in an hour. So it’s back to the maggot feeder, I give this another half hour, but as they say on TV, time has once again beaten me and I pack up and make my way home.
Looking back I should have done a few things differently. Not made that phone call when I did for a start, got to the river earlier and stuck to my plan of moving after a couple of fish, but all in all not a bad way to spend a day, peace, quiet, some colourful wildlife and 2 fish caught.
I plan to return to this swim some time soon but in the meantime there’s a few carp rumoured to be in the river up to 15lb so that may be the next session’s target.
(Editor’s note: This is Paul’s first serious article of the season and it tells a story. However, he is saving his pennies [on the bottle returns] to buy a better camera so that in future he’ll maybe take some pictures of his catch too. It’s very good Paul and should encourage more to have a go. Thanks.)
