For the first time in quite a while I managed to get in what I would call a proper day's fishing. Longer than the length of your typical match, at least. For once, the weather was on my side, and the river looked in fine fettle. You see, on the flat open levels, even the most modest gust of wind can make controlling the line above a stick float a nightmare.
The banks of the River Isle are steep and soft, and it was a bit difficult finding a suitable spot from which to trot. I found one such spot on the inside of a bend, where I could both sit and fish and (even more importantly) actually get back up the bank again, once I'd had enough.
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The banks of the River Isle are steep and soft, and it was a bit difficult finding a suitable spot from which to trot. I found one such spot on the inside of a bend, where I could both sit and fish and (even more importantly) actually get back up the bank again, once I'd had enough.
Even though the margins were shallow and clear, a gloomy central track looked inviting and several small fish were topping. To start, I mixed up some groundbait and tossed two balls slightly downstream, down the middle of the river. I then set up a 1g wire stemmed stick whilst that settled. First trot through on a red maggot I had a small roach, and it wasn't long before it became apparent that my single pint of caster would be insufficient for feed.
Roach after roach followed, and then, just as my caster began to run low, I hit sold resistance on a single shell from a fish which refused to budge from near the bottom. After a couple of thumping head shakes, it was off. Chub or perch? I couldn't be sure. Not long after, the same thing happened again, with a different end, as I slipped the net beneath a pleasing 12oz stripey. The roach continued to fall to single caster but were frustratingly small; for long periods, 20 to the pound. A change to maggot brought another perch of ¾lb before my casters ran out.
Fortunately, I also had around twenty lobworms with me and so decided to feed one broken lob every two trots and use a tail on the hook. This soon sorted out another similarly sized perch plus a much smaller billy, but the next bite saw my hooklength severed, even though I didn't feel even the slightest resistance on the strike. The teeth on these pike must be incredibly sharp. I took that opportunity to replace what had been an 18 hook to 0.09 with a size 12 super spade to 0.13. I had one more good perch after this change and also hooked and lost what felt the best fish yet, but I think it may have been grabbed by a pike as it didn't feel quite so heavy in the first five seconds of the fight.
Once the worms were gone, I resorted to three or four red maggots on the hook and for the last hour had a roach a chuck, in spite of the big hook, and the fact that I was unable to feed a thing! I should have brought along twice as much caster as I did, and a pint of hemp, but you live and learn, and such days are rare. By the end of the session, I had amassed 25lb 2oz of mostly roach. There must have been easily over 200 fish.