Two hour window

With a two hour window available I set about further exploration of the 'new' stretch of river that had been so kind to me 24 hours earlier...

Snags

The balmy temperatures experienced on Friday had all but disappeared and although the thermometer read eight degrees celsius and 'only' four degrees lower from 24 hours previously, the biting wind made it feel much colder.


I started off in a swim that I had failed on 24 hours earlier, and within minutes my flake offering had attracted some interest, a half hearted pull that I promptly missed. Another couple of casts gave a similar result, the same as the day previously. I suspect small fish are present here in some numbers but once my allotted 40 minutes was up I moved on to my next swim... amongst the snags.


The snags, are, well, quite snaggy! Still, nothing ventured nothing gained and magically I dropped my first bait right on the nail within a foot of the visible branches and left it there for a good 15 minutes. The tip never moved. I re-baited and cast to a slightly different area of the snags, again, nice and close, again hand on rod ready to steer, nay bully, any chub which picked up that bait. This time however, whilst reeling in, it went solid and I had to pull for the break, "that's why they're called the snags" I never said to myself philosophically!


The final swim, a sunken tree gave me little to go on, no bites, no snags, and was all a bit 'meh' and forgettable really. And so I called it a day at 5pm with family duties beckoning. A bit gutted I didn't catch the last hour into dark but the weather was horrendous and this was my third trip in as many days.


So what have I learned so far on this stretch? Nothing groundbreaking but each little snippet helps, both successes and failures! The big chub came from open water at dusk! The area of the snags where I got my tackle back (and the area I didn't) will give me a little more to go on next time out and help me to formulate a plan for baiting with mashed bread, more precisely, whereabouts within this particular swim the bread needs to go. So despite this session being fishless and only 2 hours in length I've taken something that I can, and will, use in future!