My End To The River Season 2010/11

Sunday 13th March

Well that's it for another season on the rivers and this year I was fortunate enough to be able to fish on both Sunday and Monday. On Sunday I decided to have a go on the Nene at Fotheringhay but when I arrived I found a couple of anglers in the pegs that I had wanted to fish so I walked downstream and around the bend. The river was ideal for the waggler so I set up a 4 AAA insert waggler so I could cast 3/4 across the river with plenty in reserve in case the wind changed or got tricky.

Downstream at Fotheringhay

 I kicked things off with a couple of balls of groundbait made up of my usual Dynamite Baits Roach and River mixed 70-30 with a few grains of hemp and a few pinkies.

It was a full half hour before I got my first bite which resulted in a tiny Roach and this was followed by a few more small Roach and Dace up until lunch time. This was not what I was looking for at all so I needed to come up with a cunning plan to turn this around and so after a quick bite to eat I decided to loose feed  quite heavily with maggots and casters in the hope of attracting a Chub or two. An hour or so passed before the float dipped and I struck into a lump that gave me the right run around for a few minutes before I got the net under it, I was feeling a little happier now as this thing looked a good 4lb. I then had another much smaller one of about a pound and a small Roach of a couple of ounces.



A cracking river Nene Chub of 4lb

It must have been a good half hour before my next bite and after having to extract the fish from the reeds on the near bank I had another Chub of 2lb 12oz. It was a patchy days fishing to say the least but persistence paid off and Chub saved the day and after scratching around for another couple of hours and managing a few more small fish and 1 more small Chub around a pound so I decided to call it a day.


I was after Roach today but couldn't be disappointed with Chub like this



I Finished up with 10lb of fish when at lunch time it looked unlikely I was going to break 1lb so I was pleased that I had been able to turn it around.

Monday 14th March

For the last day of the season I planned a double header fishing the river Nene at Humpback Bridge Wansford in the morning and then at Yarwell in the afternoon. I parked in the layby on the A47 next to the river and walked upstream to the last peg on that field, I had a great feature tree across the far side and was thinking it must hold a few Chub.



A typical Wansford Chub peg

 I set up a waggler and had a quick plumb up to find I had 8 feet of water across to the tree and I decided to loose feed Casters and fish the same on the hook. Anyway to cut a long story short I had 1 bite at 45 minutes resulting in a Chub of a couple of pounds and after another hour without a bite I decided to pack up and move to Yarwell.


Its not really easy to photograph yourself



On arrival at Yarwell I had a quick look at the whole stretch and had a quick chat with a couple of other anglers to see how it had been fishing and after listening to their free advice I went to the far  end of the stretch and sat on peg 18 opposite a moored narrow boat.



I fished a 5BB Avon float on the line of the shadow down the middle of the river.

The river had a good pace on it as it is a little narrower through most of this stretch and an even depth of about 8ft. After introducing two balls of groundbait I let the float run through at full pace and just as it got over the feed the float went under and I had a 3oz Roach. This was a better start as I was desperate to catch a few nice Roach after the tiny ones I had caught over the last couple of visits to the river. This was quickly followed by 2 more Roach and then nothing for half an hour, this pattern lasted all afternoon with a few fish and then nothing at all for long periods of time.


A chunky Roach from Yarwell



I was soon to discover the reason for this when I got into a tussle with Pike that snaffled a 4 oz Roach I was bringing in, the Roach made good its escape and transferred the size 20 hook into the scissors of the Pikes jaw. I walked it a few pegs downstream and returned it to the water hoping that I would not be troubled by it again.

A troublesome Pike of about 5lb

I fished on until about 6 o'clock and put a few more fish in the net before finally calling time on the season and I finished up with a few pounds of quality Roach which was a nice way for it all to end.