Determined to begin exploration above the weir, I sat facing a fresh breeze on a muggy Septembers day. To my right was a large bed of bulrushes, jutting out into ten feet of steady water. It had to be the perfect ambush point.
The wind made catching bait tricky, even then, the fish were an unsuitable size, too large for practical perch fishing. Eventually, a handful of three inch dace were collected. Among those was a couple of small-average perch and a ¼lb roach. A jack pike also took a shine to what I presume was a perch, snaffled the hooked fish as I was reeling it in, then sliced through my low diameter hook-length with those teeth.
The club chairman stopped by on his travels, carrying lure gear. He had lost an estimated upper-double / low-twenty pound pike at the net. My sympathy goes out to you, Steve.
My live-bait was put into position, tight against the rushes. As I was getting it in the perfect position, I became aware that there was a heaviness about my rig, directly under the rod-tip. Suddenly, all went slack, and I realised a fish had taken my bait, felt resistance, and let go! Upon retrieval, my hook-bait looked worse for wear, but showing no obvious signs that a toothy predator had grabbed it. In my experience, pike don't let go so easily...
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| Bobbing away in the lair |
After re-baiting, minutes turned to hours, sunny intervals turned into heavy showers, afternoon turned to evening.
Dusk was upon us, with not a sniff to show, the take on the first cast was to be all I had to go on. As the light failed, the river came alive with fish activity. I noted that the roach/bream were topping mid-river, the small dace were topping one-quarter across and began packing away.
It seems that there are too many potential fish holding features on the stretch to spend a whole session on one spot, especially at this time of the year. A more mobile approach is needed. Or maybe I should stick to the weir for now.
Best wishes and keep searching those deep pools. D.
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