Gary's day
After a chilly day on Saturday the morning started off pretty mild although the wind that picked up later soon dropped the temperature. At the draw out came peg 2 for me which I was pretty happy with. It is quite narrow but pretty deep which I thought would help with the lack of flow and the River being crystal clear.
An hour later I was not so sure as I was bite less and Tony on peg 4 was also struggling (apart from a small jack pike). Phil up on peg 6 was doing OK though with a few small roach and perch. At last, I had a tiny dace and a small perch but after these 2 the swim died again. Despite searching all over with worm, maggot and bread punch I just could not get a bite.
Tony suddenly had a couple of decent perch around noon and I was a long way behind without even thinking about how the top half of the River was fishing. And then Phil had a decent perch of around 1lb and I was a very long way behind. Up at the top of the River and out of sight there were quite a few fish being caught.
With half an hour to go and out of desperation I set the float to half depth (4ft - I said it was deep) and put on a tiny piece of bread punch and the float went under. It was only a small dace but a bite at last. And then the small fish were suddenly there and it was a bite as soon as I could get a float in - they were pretty small though and I needed the better roach to show. Sadly, there was no heroic come back as a canoe suddenly came round the corner and the fish disappeared for a bit until they turned around. My flurry of small fish did not save from a miserable 8oz and bottom of the weigh sheet - if only they had been there from the start.
The River had fished much better as you went up towards the weir with quite a few reasonable sized roach and more perch coming out. Darren had a busy day on peg 15 for 4lbs 4oz of mostly small fish which pipped Steve on peg 10 with 4lbs who had a mix of roach and perch but Phil was the clear winner today with 5lbs 12oz including a couple of perch over a pound - the best was 1lb 3oz.