30th November - River Blackwater
Entry posted by Paulg
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My one and only visit to this venue on the Blackwater had been back in March, when I managed to land two out five chub hooked, the other three knew exactly where a sunken branch was lying. The swim is not the most scenic, or sweetest smelling……Sandhurst sewage works….and I was downwind !
Today it didn’t appear have anything in it apart from some small chublets so although I caught my target species for the day, they were not quite the size of those encountered nine months previously! I suspect that whilst the frosts of the last couple of nights had helped to drop the colour out of the river, the accompanying low temperatures had also made the fish a bit lethargic.
Half an hour of trotting and feeding maggots brought me a nice dace, along with a 12oz perch and several chublets. As this was only a short afternoon session I was keen to see what other swims there might be, so a brief walk upstream found another spot that looked like it might hold a chub. This detective work was helped somewhat by bumping into another angler who I knew from my local pub. He very kindly gave me some info on the stretch of river, and pointed out that he had fished this particular swim on several occasions with it nearly always producing a chub or two.
First trot through brought another chublet, but the second run of the float saw me attached to a much better stamp of fish, and after a few minutes a proper chub was netted, and weighed, at exactly 3lbs.
No further bites were forthcoming and the light was starting to fade so I strolled back down towards my starting point, couldn’t resist a few minutes legering a bit of cheese paste in this swim.
I suspect the fact that the cheese paste, having spent a season or two in and out of the freezer, now smelling worse than the sewage works, was the reason I didn’t get a bite! Half way back I spotted another possible fish holding swim that I had missed first time and decided to spend the remaining daylight running a float through. Chublets seemed to be everywhere with another couple being landed plus a nice roach, and final fish of the day, a 1lb perch, pity the colours were a bit washed out in this exposure, I think I need some photography lessons from Rusty!
All in all, a very pleasant afternoon session and I suspect it won’t be my only visit of the winter.
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