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The first trip was my June 16th which came ten days late after I returned home from holiday on the 26th. So for my first river trip of the new season my Dad and me headed up the Trent (the Trent actually passes right by where I live but its right where it joins with the Ouse to make the Humber) to Winthorpe which is a couple of miles short of Newark. The plan for the day was to fish blockend feeder about mid-river with hemp caster and a few maggots with double caster or maggot mounted on a size 16 drennen carbon feeder and see what came along. After two biteless hours the tip suddenly bounced down and a small chub of around a pound and a half was on its way to the net, a perfect looking fish it was too. Next chuck and once again the tip begins bouncing, this time the culprit was a small perch of around 3oz! And that was it, two bites in two casts and nothing else. My dad had one bite all day, which resulted in a nice bream of around 4lbs. Looking back I think we should have either fished a tidal section probably Collingham with the hemp and caster or brought groundbait for the bream and skimmers at where we fished. My second fishing trip was a bit of a spur of the moment thing. I was driving around a few of my favourite stretches on the river Ancholme when I was informed that bream weights of up to 30lbs had been caught at Feriby off the new floating pontoon after lunch when the sun was a bit lower. So I went home, had an early lunch mixed up some groundbait put the gear into the car and went back. My pole was set up and a nice flat bottom was found in eight feet of water at around eight meters. Groundbait was balled in and I then fished pole over the top. After an hour I had had only one bite, which I bumped. I then attracted the attention of a group of about 5 kids around 10-12 years old who were asking questions left right and centre! I have to say they were generally well behaved and very intrigued when I finally caught something, an eel! Not very big at about 6oz but at least it was something. I don’t actually mind catching eels and I cant see a problem with them, they are fish, and they fight hard! Next put in and I caught a skimmer around 3oz and then strangely once again that was it! Two fishing trips in a row both of which resulted in two fish in two casts right in the middle of the session! Weird eh! Around an hour and a half after the skimmer it began to spit with rain and I thought that was a good sign to pack up. As soon as I stood up from my box the wind increased drastically and the heavens opened. Needless to say I got completely soaked which seamed to somehow be a fitting end to a poor session! My next outing was a Saturday evening match on my local club water. The draw was held a two and the match fished from three till eight. After the draw all that could be heard down the bank was splashing but not the splashing of balls of groundbait but the splashing of weed rakes as near enough everybody had to clear weed which has suddenly sprung up from there swims. After 15 minutes of intensive raking I set up my one and only line of attack, a waggler rod with an insert waggler which had the bulk of the shot around its base and just a few number 8’s down the line to a 2lb maxima hooklength and a size 16 kamasan B520 hook. I went for a bold approach and threw in 7 large balls of groundbait at the start and fished maggot over the top. I was immediately into rudd in the 1 – 2oz bracket. After the first hour I switched to a worm bait and moved more weight down the line to try and get through the Rudd and catch something a bit bigger, this move resulted in a nice perch of around 6oz but no more bites were forthcoming, still it didn’t sound as thought anybody was catching much. I continued to pick off a few rudd until the end of what turned out to be a very slow match. At the scales I had 1lb 12oz, which was good enough for joint 4th on an afternoon which saw the lake/pond very out of sorts. Normally that weight would have got me nowhere but not a single tench or crucian was weighed in. The winner had an excellent 6lb odd which was made up of 3lb of rudd and a chub which looked all of 4½ –5lbs, but which only went 3lb 10oz on the scales! I would have bet a month’s wages on the fish weighing more then that, it looked huge! I have read a couple of articles in the past year or so about the river Bain near Horncastle, but although it is reasonably close to my home I have never even seen it let alone fished it. So on a Monday morning with a thick head from my excesses the night before I set off with all my gear loaded up for Horncastle, which turned out to be about an hours drive. I really didn’t know what to expect at all. I knew it was a fairly small river and contained chub, but that was about it. When I arrived in Horncastle I parked up in the centre and had a walk about to find a fishing tackle shop, it wasn’t long before I was directed to a pet shop which also sold tackle, the idea was to ask in the shop about where I could fish and how to fish etc. The only snag was that the woman in the pet shop was more into pets than fishing tackle and other than knowing where the river was didn’t know much more. She did, however, kindly provide me with an environment agency booklet for our region, which listed the river and a couple of village names where it could be fished. My Dad (who had come along for a look and to walk the dogs) and me the walked a section of the river in the town itself. It was only then that I discovered just how small it actually was. The ‘river’ was little more than a stream not what I expected at all! However after walking around 20 meters up river we soon started to spot shoals of 5-6oz chub in the crystal clear water, and, a bit further and we started to spot bigger chub with biggest approaching 2 ½ - 3lbs!! Amazing for the size of river. It was clear though that it would be pointless fishing for these fish as the could clearly see us and being right in the town had probably been fished for hundreds of times. I got back in my car, left my dad to walk the dogs and drove off out of Horncastle to try and find somewhere to fish the river. I soon located a quiet stretch, which I walked up with a loaf of bread throwing bits into the river which averaged around 10 feet wide and two deep. It wasn’t long before I noticed the bits of floating bread being sucked under at the tail end of a fast run where the river deepened and there was streamer weed growth. I hurried back to the car and set up a float rod with 2 ½ lb maxima to a size 8 hook to freeline a bit of bread. I almost ran back to the river, I sat at the top of the fast run and once again began flicking bits of break onto the surface at my feet and letting them drift 20 or so yards downstream to the waiting chub which, much to my delight were still there. After around 5 minutes I hooked a nice sized piece of crust dropped it in the waster and let it flow down stream. I lost sight of the crust about halfway to the fish and I instead watched the line peeling off the reel. Suddenly two or three turns of line peeled of the reel extremely quickly, I snapped the bail arm shut and struck the rod into a nice fish. At the point where I was fishing the river was only around 12 inches deep and 10 feet wide and pulling this chub up through the current took some effort when I finally managed to get it too my feet I was able to hand land a nice chub of around a pound. Brilliant! It was a fin perfect fish and it put up one hell of a fight! What to do now? I immediately threw some more bread in as I had tried my hardest too keep the disturbance made by that fish to a minimum but there were no more takes, it appeared I had well and truly spooked the shoal. I quickly baited the area with hemp and caster along with a few offerings of sweetcorn to hopefully snare another chub later on. My attentions now turned to the deep weirpool slightly upstream of my position, I had baited a deep hole on the far bank with hemp and caster when I was walking the river and I quickly slipped three grains of corn onto the hook which was just enough weight to cast to the hole. The corn couldn’t have been more than half depth when the line sipped across the surface in an unmissable bite………………..which I missed!! I then had an inspired change of tactics. I took a drennen insert waggler and removed the eye and loading from the base and the insert from the top and secured the remaining clear plastic tube (which is sealed at both ends) to the line at both ends with float rubbers. This done I once again added three grains of corn and recast into the pool. The set up worked perfectly, and was in effect a kind of stret pegging, the corn sank to the bottom and the float laid flat on the top and just edged the corn along the bottom at the pace of the current. The float had moved no more than three feet when it suddenly jagged back upstream! A swift strike was met with a solid resistance of a good chub, the fish put up a tremendous fight and very nearly got into weed beds on a couple of occasions but before long I had my prize, a pristine conditioned chub, all two and a half pounds of it! And from a river so small! I suspected the disturbance from that fish would put an end to the action in the pool but just in case I baited the hook once more and cast into the pool. And I am glad I did, as the bait was quickly taken by another chub. This one though, I lost! Well you can’t have it all! To my amazement though I quickly managed to land another chub of around a pound, which was immediately followed by a carbon copy of the two and a half pounder! I was completely over the moon! The depth of the water in the pool was obviously enough to keep the fish feeding confidently! I then lost one more before deciding to give the pool a rest and catapulted in some hemp and caster before taking a wonder down stream. It wasn’t long before I came across another weir about half a mile downstream of the first, I quickly dumped the gear and took my loaf of bread to the top of the pool and dropped some bits of crust in and watched them float down with the current, as soon as they reached the tail end of the pool they once again were taken by some chub! I couldn’t believe my luck this river is absolutely stuffed with fish! I fed the fish for a few more minutes to get there confidence up. There didn’t seam to be anywhere near as many fish in this pool but there were still a few. Because of this a few of the crusts were floating past where the fish were and down into a very narrow jungle like section of the stream and I also noticed a couple of the crust being taken down there. After a few minutes I slipped a nice chunk onto the hook and let it run down the current. I struggled though and actually failed to get a take. The reason for this was the lack of flow to take line off the reel and the distance the fish were from my position meant that I was having to lift the rod to pull line off the reel which was pulling the crust and affecting the presentation. I couldn’t go nearer the fish as they were right in against my bank and I would surely spook them. I decided to try and ambush them from the other side of the river. I crossed over the bridge on the weir pool and crept down the bank till I was nearly opposite the chub. My only problem now was that I couldn’t cast a bit of crust to the other side of the river. As a compromised I squeezed on a large bit of flake, dunked it into the water to give it casting weight on flicked across to the waiting chub, it had barely entered the water when the line zipped across the surface and I stuck into a very solid resistance, this was a good fish! I had to apply as mush pressure as I thought the sturdy 2 ½ lbs maxima could take to keep the fish clear of weedbeds but eventually I had another pristine chub on the bank, this one though was by far the biggest yet, it weighed in at an impressive 3lbs 4oz, for such a small river I thought that was an incredible size! The chub was quickly returned and after holding it in the flow for a few minutes it swam off strongly. I sat there dazed for a while until I suddenly remembered the chub I had seen further downstream taking the bread. I took a bag of luncheon meat, which I had flavoured with curry powder from my bag. I have never used curry powder on luncheon meat before but as I was about to find out, it works!! I baited my hook and crept downstream to where the fish were, I was able to get right up to them as I was shielded by shoulder height reeds growing in the waters edge. I slowly stood up and peered into the water. Beyond the thick near bank reeds there was about eight feet of clear water across the river till it was completely covered by weed, there looked to be about two to three feet of depth and although I couldn’t actually see any fish I was sure they were there. I lifted the rod over the reeds and lowered a large chunk of meat into the water right under my rod tip. The meat sank slowly and rested on the bottom weed. I collected my gear up and walked back upstream to the original pool to hopefully snare another fish before heading home, although I couldn’t really complain if I didn’t. A close inspection of the shallow run where the first fish had come from revealed that the chub had still to return to the baited area so my attentions turned to the deep hole. Another first for me now (along with stret pegging and the curried meat) as I slipped on a chunk of the meat and then freelined it into the pool and felt the line for bites, this is something I have never done before but I have read many articles on rolling meat. After a couple of minutes I felt a ‘pluck’ on the line, this was a completely new and electrifying experience! The pluck soon developed into a pull and the rod tip moved round and I struck into another good fish, which I had on for around 5 seconds before it unexplainably snapped my line. Isn’t it amazing how much your feelings can swing in fishing from ecstatic happiness to unrivalled disappointment, Oh well! I quickly tied on another hook and recast, more in hope than expectation, as the rain started to fall. However no sooner had the bait settled than I was again into another good chub! This one was quickly on the bank and weighed in at three and a bit pounds, I cant remember the exact weight. I was a thoroughly contented and happy fisherman! I decided to have a further fifteen minutes casting up under the weir bridge where I had seen some fish earlier on, one tentative pull and a small jack pike which attacked the bait on its way in but quickly got off was all that resulted. I did see the weirdest thing though, as I was watching the rod top I noticed something out of the corner of my eye in the water, it looked down to see a long black shape moving downstream through the water. Then I noticed a bright red and yellow spot at the front of it, to say I was baffled was an understatement, this thing was no more than four feet from where I stood in crystal clear water and I did not have a clue as to what I had just seen! Also it had swam past a pike of about 4lbs which more then a foot away from it when it had passed which I had noticed in the edge without the pike even twitching! It then dawned on me what I had just seen! It was a moorhen!!! I have honestly never seen anything like it before in my life and it scared the hell out of me! After that episode I packed my gear away and walked back to the car in the rain. If you couple the fish caught with the kingfishers flying up and down the river all day, a heron which I disturbed, two squirrels which I stood and watched play fighting under the shade of a tree by the edge of the river and the fact that I set off in the morning without a clue of what to expect and you can easily see why this was perhaps the most enjoyable days fishing I have ever had! It was almost fitting that I didn’t have my camera! ‘til next month… Tight Lines, Mally |
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