Diary of an average angler

With my left hip playing up I hadn't been out fishing for over three weeks, but it had calmed down and I decided to go to the Offord Mill Stream as it would involve less walking than the other river venues that I normally fish. With no cars in the car park when I arrived it wasn't surprising to find nobody on the Mill Stream. I set up at the head of the stream and proposed to then work my way downstream, dropping in the few swims that exist.

The stream had a nice flow to it, not too heavy but, as usual, quite clear. The swim at the head of the stream is a very attractive little spot but in the past I have been bothered with small fish attacking bread flake, with maggots being a complete no-no! Today I had some freshly made cheese paste, this time flavoured with garlic. I also had some Spam, pre-chopped in cubes, and a bit of bread flake should all else fail.

I started with cheese paste and got knocks but nothing positive. Those small fish again? I changed to Spam and was soon to get a good pull and connect, only for the hook to pull within a few seconds. I guessed it was a chub. The cane rod isn't as sensitive to bites as a quivertip and it was perhaps putting me at a slight disadvantage.

Striking on another pull I found that I had foul-hooked a dace, possibly having missed the bite and pulled through a shoal of dace, these being numerous in this part of the stream. Not long after there was another good pull and I thought I had connected with a good chub. But it turned out to be quite a sizeable eel. Not wishing to struggle with it in the landing net, on on the ground, I tried to hand line it out with the idea of releasing the hook while it was partially out of the water. But it tangled itself in the grass and eventually took my hook.

With so much disturbance after the momentarily hooked fish and the eel, I decided on a move.

I next set up in one of the two swims about midway along the stream, which have produced chub quite reliably in the past. However, trees on the far bank have grown so as to overhang the stream and restrict casting to no more than midstream, and often the bait pulls round to closer to the near bank. I tried both these swims and other than some knocks, got nothing. I also tried a swim a bit downstream, which was again tricky to fish, and ended up breaking off after getting snagged in rushes.

Moving a bit upstream I cast to a small slacker area by the far bank. I got a clear pull on the rod top but missed it. Casting again to this spot, and this time holding the rod, a far from positive pull resulted in a fish being hooked, although at first I thought I had missed it again. The fish tried for rushes near the far bank but once I had managed to get it away from them the fight wasn't too challenging. The fish was in open water and was using the stream rather than its muscle to resist.

Netted, and weighed, it was shown to be a very thick-set fish of 4¼lbs, in beautiful condition. I was happy that my new cane rod, that I had bought primarily for small stream chub fishing, had been christened on its first outing. I had already observed its all-through action when playing the eel and must say I am very pleased with my purchase.

This was to be the one and only highlight of the session. I tried the often reliable swim by the bridge but got snagged three times, deciding to move again rather than tempt fate with a fourth snagging. I then tried a couple of spots I hadn't fished previously but was unsuccessful in tempting another chub. Finally, I revisited a couple of the spots that I had already fished, including where I had caught the chub, but I was again unsuccessful.

I decided to call it a day having been on the stream for about four hours. It may have been only one chub but I was more than satisfied with what was a very good fish, and really pleased that my new cane chubbing rod had been properly christened.