Several hours swimming the stream today....

[Tigger]

I managed to get out during the latter half of the afternoon today to do a bit of trotting. When I got to the river I dropped into several swims catching plenty fish but they were very small chub about 3 inches long, small roach, a little bigger, and a small brown trout. I thought that was going to be the order of the day until after a walk of a few hundred yards I dropped into a shallow, fast, turbulent run of water. The water was that turbulent I could hardly see my float and it often disappeard for a split second as it went down between the riffles (I think that's what you call 'em). I changed my carbon stemmed float for a heavier alloy stemmed one hoping for better sability and it did seem to work a little better. The fish in this shallow fast water were of a much better stamp than the tiddlers of the other swims i'd dipped my toes in. I hooked what I think was a salmon at one point; it bolted off upstream, came back and swam in little circles, then shot across the river only to come back and then shoot off at warp speed down river, where I put on a lot of pressure and the hook pulled free. I then hooked a large trout that jumped a good three or more feet out of the water on several occasions and on the last jump threw the hook as it shook it's head....saved me unhooking it I did manage to catch a couple of barbel and a few decent chub, the biggest chub went to just over 5lb, not massive but still nice to wind in in such a powerfull glide. Here's a couple of pic's from the day....







This one dragged my float through some rocks and nearly broke it ....



Must be the smallest tourist in the river...

 

[Newt]

That sounds like one hellofa day. Great fun and makes me wish I were there.

[Tigger]

That sounds like one hellofa day. Great fun and makes me wish I were there.

 

 

Thank's Newt...if ever you do make another trip over the pond your always welcome t join me .

 

If it was you (or whoever it was), thank's for altering the title from everal to several, i'm always missing letters off !

[Christian T]

Sounds like a real cracker. I always shy away from those turbulent straights, just thinking about what's going on under the water boggles my mind.

[Vagabond]

Sounds good. Surprisingly few anglers will trot a riffle, yet they often hold good fish.

[Tigger]

Had a few hours trotting again today but it was like looking for a needle in a hay stack trying to find the fish, I walked a couple of miles dropping in on any likely looking swims. I did find some fish eventually and finnished up catching a few of them...dace, chub, trout and some small roach. Most of the fish where small but perfectly formed , I reckon the biggest chub which is the one I held up for the pic would have been over 4lb. One trout in particular was absolutly stunning to look at, it's colours rivaling any exotic tropical species ! Unfortunatly I couldn't get a pic of it as I was quite a way out in the river which is quite large, infact most of the fish I caught today where in very alkward places, at the bottom of steep 40ft bank's full of trees etc. Here's a couple of pic's I did managed to take....

[BobH]

Very Nice Tigger, great pictures.

[Tigger]

Very Nice Tigger, great pictures.

 

 

Thank's Bob .

[Tigger]

I had a trotting session after tea last night and decided to fish a stretch i'd never fished before but had just never got round to it. The stretch is very rocky and the river bed is made up of rocks and boulders of varying sizes from small rocks to large boulders that are coverd in algie wich is every bit as slipery as ice ! The varying sized rocks and algie makes it very alkward when wading out to the better looking glides as it's necessary to wade quite a distance through shallow water before reaching any depth. The stretch consists of runs of fast flowing water of only a few inches deep which flows into deeper scolloped out glides of a couple of feet deep only to go very shallow again. It carries on like that for seven or more hundred yards before the river evens out to a more normal pace (to slow at the moment for decent trotting).
I didn't get anything of any real size but had chub, dace roach and barbel and it was an enjoyable session. I did get a immaculate roach and would say it was well over a pound but as I tryed to take a picture of it (mid river) it slipped out of my hand....darn it !
Here's the only pic I did take....

 

[Tigger]

I fished from 4.30 pm until dark or at least until I could no longer see the float properly. I landed 14 barbel and lost another five and a dace. After loosing four fish I changed my hook as I was certain it was it causing them to come off and all the fish (except one) after I put on a new hook stayed on so I guess it was down to the hook. The fifth fish to come off was foul hooked in it's peck fin so I was happy it pulled out. I did catch one poor fish with a nasty big barbless circle type hook in it's face and the hook had disfigured the fish...so much for barbless hooks coming out, it had curled right round in the fishes face and would never have come out. I always check the fishes mouths when I catch them and another fish had a barbed spade end hook about size 10's lodged in it's throat, I removed that easy enough and it left no damage.

 

Here's a pic of the barbel with the barbless hook wedged in it's face...





Here's a few other pic's from the day...

Edited September 13, 2014 by Tigger