Cormorants and canoes

Thursday 26 December 2019. River Weaver (0.85m and dropping).

Another few hours on boxing day...

move

I rocked up at 14 bells, started in the same two swims I finished in on Xmas eve, nada.

In the first 30 minutes I had a mink, a goosander and a cormorant all go through the swim (not together, that would be a bit too much). Then a 'know all' got me, telling me I was too late 'as a cormorant had been through'.. ..

I wasn't happy with the state of my flake in the first two swims, too old, too flakey, not right, so I changed rig slightly and used crust thereafter (for the first time in ages it has to be said). Lo and behold in my third swim, the witching hour came at 15.15 and I got a chub right on time. Fifteen minutes later I got another. Nothing amazing, 2lb+ each, but happy enough.

I had one more bite which I missed and reckon I could have mustered out another few fish but decided to bimble on downstream to an 'old banker' that has in recent years turned to sh*te. I fished on until 5, nice and warm (although a tad wet) suffice to say, the 'old banker' is still sh*te.

Sunday 29th December 2019. River Weaver (0.783 and falling).

A few more hours this afternoon, a bit of an experiment as much as anything. Sorted myself a new camera, so had a play with that. Scaled the amount of terminal gear down, had a play with the interchangeable feeders/leads that Preston have introduced and decided to try a few swims I rarely fish.

snags

River still dropping, I didn’t arrive until 2-ish so in reality it was only 2 hours fishing, but as we know you catch fook all sat in the ‘ouse.

First swim is a deep hole. I can’t remember catching a fish from there, I do remember losing tackle. Well I didn’t remember until reeling in from my first cast which saw me leave a hooklink in an unseen snag. “I remember now.”

Now it’s fair to say I’ve been a right moaning twunt lately, and today, there were loads of people out. It was a mild day, a Sunday afternoon, Xmas week, goodwill to all. Forgive and forget. I didn’t bargain for a bloke in a canoe though, yet that’s what happened. Payback for me being such a miserable tit. 

Payback

After a few more half-hearted casts I moved down to the railway bridge swim, where it was miles too busy, far too many people, too many dogs, so after 5 minutes there and I was on my toes once again.

Thereafter I revisited the shit banker swim that I finished up in on Boxing day. I do sometimes feel I have a point to prove with certain swims, regardless, with an hour or so left I opted to fish mid-river, using a small cage feeder containing hempy bread mash, with flake or dendra on the hook. It’s fair to say the fish weren’t going mad, but second cast I did miss a bite, and the third cast I hooked into a fish which gave a good account of itself, and in fact, turned out to be one of the resident bream of about 3lb. I might just have a pop for these one day.

slab

Just before dark I had a chub near 3lb, however the hook had passed clean through its lip and became embedded in the net. So after snapping off I called it a day.