Arrival time: 10:00.
Weather: A still chilly autumn day with only a hint of a downstream breeze.
Tackle: 14ft Shimano match rod, Shimano Exage 1000RC reel, 4.4lb line, 3.8lb Supplex hook link to 16 eyed hook.
Baits: Maggots, worms & hemp as attractor.
Fish: Dace

A match report from the previous weekend described a large bag of perch taken from peg 6 on the B section of the Dolphin meadow. I thought it was worth a try, especially as that peg isn't too far to walk from the Dolphin Hotel car park. The stretch appeared empty but as I got nearer I saw that there was already an angler in peg 6. He obviously also read the match report! I settled in peg 4.

I went and had a chat with the chap in peg 6, who was legering, but he hadn't caught anything. So with the 'hot' peg not producing it wasn't a very good omen for me. But I was there so I could only try, and he was legering while I had brought my match rod. I later found out the large perch bag during the match was caught on the pole, so a bit closer to my float fishing style than legering.

I got twitches on the float almost from the word go but couldn't hook them, even when the float occasionally disappeared. When I did finally succeed it turned out to be a small dace, dace being notoriously fast biters!

After a while I decided that the perch weren't probably going to show and fitted a lighter float with the intention of doing the best I could with the dace. And it did improve things, although I was still missing far more bites than I was hitting, and a number of fish shed the hook while I was playing them in.

My perseverance did however pay off as I caught a few quite decent dace but the perch didn't show.

However, on one occasion as I was bringing in a reasonably sized dace a huge perch followed it into the shallows almost beneath the platform I was fishing from. So I couldn't catch perch but they were certainly there. I was surprised however to not at least catch a few small ones.

As a dace session it went quite well although a lot of floating debris from upstream reed clearance started to make casting difficult. And I was starting to get cold despite the movement generated by the continual casting. I decided to call it a day around 1:30 and while disappointed at not finding any perch I did enjoy catching the dace. I may even return with lighter tackle and a smaller hook for a dedicated dace session.