This weekend I decided that I would have another look at the river Welland and this time I would concentrate my effort around Four Mile Bar. I had arranged to have an evening session on Friday night and set off from home at 5pm after work, I arrived at the river at 5.30 and had a quick look off of the footbridge. I was pleased to see the water had some colour in it and while I stood there for a few minutes I saw a couple of Bream roll, well that was enough for me and I hurriedly got the gear from the car and positioned myself near to where I had seen the fish roll.
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| A view from the East bank below the footbridge at Four Mile Bar |
I quickly assembled my feeder rod with a paternoster rig and had a few quick casts to make sure the bottom was clear of weed and then made a few casts to get some bait into the swim. I baited the hook with double Red maggot, cast in and then sat back in anticipation of the tip pulling around and striking into a Bream, well after half an hour the tip did go round and I struck into a fish and straight away I knew that this was no Bream. It was a couple of seconds before I realised what I had on the end and within the next few moments my suspicions were confirmed as I slipped the net under an Eel. Ok so no big deal you may think but this was the first Eel I had caught in absolutely years and so it was a pleasant surprise. I slipped it into the net and quickly re cast and yes you have got it within a few seconds the tip went and I was into my second Eel, this was a similar size to the first one at about 12oz. Well that's nice as it shows the Eel is obviously making a comeback but I would be quite happy not to have another one tonight as I wanted a Bream. I waited a little while before I got my next bite and this resulted in a 12oz Hybrid, I then spent the next half hour frustrated by small plucks on the tip that I couldn't hit. I then switched to a single maggot and immediately started to connect with the small Skimmers that had struggled to get the double maggot in their mouths. As the evening went on the Bream were rolling all over the river but none of them wanted to give themselves up to me and as the light started to fade I decided to call it a day. I walked back to the car quite excited by the number of Bream I had seen rolling that evening and went home to plan my next visit.
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| The New footbridge |
Sunday 26th June
Due to other commitments an early start on Sunday was out of the question so I planned to go out late afternoon and fish through to the evening, the weather forecast was for it to be sunny and very warm. I arrived at the river at 4.30 and picked a swim on the East side of the river which gave me deep water within pole range, I had 11ft of water at 11.5m and a clear bottom, this put me into the same area that I would cast the feeder to if I was fishing from the other bank.
My rig was made up of a 2gr float with an olivette 3 ft from the hook and 3 droppers finished off with a size 18 hook in conjunction with a No5 elastic.
I introduced 6 balls of groundbait consisting of 60% Dynamite Bream and 40% Brown crumb containing some Pinkies and Casters and then left it for 10 minutes while I arranged the rest of my gear and positioned my umbrella to give me some shade.
My opening fish of the session was a small Perch followed by a 6oz Skimmer and then a couple of smaller Skimmers in the first 15 minutes before the bites tailed off. I introduced another ball of groundbait and caught a couple more skimmers before needing another ball, this was the pattern for the rest of the session with a couple of fish and then nothing.There were no signs at all of any Bream this time although I am sure there were some in the area but I suspect the bright conditions and very high temperature being enough to put them off for the day.
Well it was another session without any better fish but there are fish to be caught on the Welland if you give it some time and effort although not many anglers bother to venture onto the river these days, you can drive the whole length from Crowland to Spalding some days an not see a single angler.
It can be a tough old job sometimes but hey somebodies got to feed the fish until the masses return to the rivers.
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| The sun sets on another day on the River Welland |
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