Diary of an average angler

The plan was to pop over to the Mill Stream and try to fish by the bridge, where I had seen another angler wade in and catch a number of chub on my last visit. When I got there the nettles had grown to such an extent that I chose not to try to get to that spot. As it turned out the water level was up slightly and I doubt my wellingtons would have been high enough to wade. Instead I chose to fish the spot I fished last time, casting down towards the bridge.

I had taken my 10ft rod, thinking I would be wading and fishing at close range. The swim I had fished on the previous occasion was, however, more overgrown, and casting down to the bridge was more difficult, hampered by the shorter rod. I persevered for around 30 minutes, nearly losing my gear a couple of times on mid-stream reeds, but despite a few half-hearted pulls there was nothing doing. I speculated that the recent concentration on the chub in the bridge area had perhaps made them far more wary, or perhaps they had relocated.

I had planned to go over to the main river at this point, but finding the Mill Stream completely free I decided to work my way upstream in the hope of tempting a chub from another spot. The two spots opposite overhanging tree limbs had become even more difficult because of the increased outreach of the branches, so I settled just upstream with the aim of casting down to the trees and letting the bread flake trundle down under them. There were no quick bites, other than small fish taps, and I lost my terminal tackle on the second cast, so I decided to move again, this time to the head of the stream.

The swim at the head of the stream is an idyllic spot that has offered up chub in the past. But on this occasion it wasn't to be. Once again there were plenty of taps and small pulls from smaller fish but nothing significant. I was reluctant to leave as it is such a good looking spot and I again debated moving over to the main river. But in the end I decided to move a short distance up to the weir pool. I hadn't fished it previously and my tackle wasn't ideal for the heavy water.

I had hoped to drop down the left margin where very fast water turns in an arc as the weir outflow strikes the bank. But the area seemed dense with streamer weed. I decided to drop some flake at the outer extent of the streamer whereby it would roll into it. That didn't work too well so I cast a bit further from the streamer and held the rod elevated to take as much line as possible out of the fast moving water.

With this approach I was soon getting bites almost immediately after the bait entered the water. I guessed that they were smaller fish but decided to keep on trying as I had all but given up for a chub. After a while I hooked a good dace, which was followed by a nice roach. I had previously changed my size 6 'chub' hook to an 8, but now realising that I was trying to hook dace and roach I went down to a size 12. My first cast with the smaller hook was rewarded with another dace.

I went on to catch a couple of more decent dace and another roach but continued to miss far more bites that I hooked. I had started to be pestered by flies, probably due to the fact I was standing in shallow water. And as it was approaching my intended packing up time I decided to call it a day.

So what started as a chub session ended up with some fun catching dace and roach, which was a pleasant distraction after a few chub trips that had proved very challenging and not that rewarding.