Last week's excuses.

Last weekend was a frustrating one...

4.8 Dove

..car trouble put paid to my regular Sunday afternoon foray, this was doubly frustrating as the day previously the Weaver looked great and I'd had 2 fish in 2 casts from my first 2 swims. One fish being a nice three pounder in a swim right next to a busy footpath. Settling down into a new swim at twilight I realised I'd left my tackle box at home including isotopes, spare hooks, hook lengths, the works. I'd arrived at the river with the rod banded up, literally took it out and started fishing. I'd not needed anything in my box for the first hour, so without realising just continued fishing, until dark, when the penny dropped... gutted. This weekend of woe resulted in me rearranging my gear (yet again) this last week and relegating the tackle box to the 'baitbox corner' of the garage. Instead I've now saved space and lightened the load a little by utilising the pouches and various pockets in my bait bag, so hopefully no more forgotten tackle.

This weekend saw me decide to fish the River Dove for chub so mid Sunday afternoon I made my way down the A50. Two cars were in the car park upon my arrival which is quite unusual, but my chosen swims were unaffected. Using bread flake and cheese paste on the hook I cast out to the edge of the flow and had several unhittable raps in the first swim, eventually nailing a grayling on bread flake. I also drew a blank in the second swim which is in very close proximity to the first. Both of these swims have quite large slack areas closer in and have given me decent chub sport in previous years.  I think that perhaps they are better for chub with more water on and I also think I gave each a little too much time, but hindsight is wonderful.

Swim 3 however did give me a result. A few handfuls of mashed bread and my first cast using bread flake saw the tip fly round after less than a minute with a chub if 4.8 in the net shortly after. Three quarters of an hour later at about 4.45 I had a second fish, this time a 3pounder. Another chance came my way after dark when a tightening of the line around my finger resulted in a bite which literally pulled the tip round by about 2ft, I struck and missed, how does that happen?

So, no excuses this week, back on the Dove this Friday all being well.