My River

Date 5/9/10
ok, so yesterday I asked the question, "any chance of giving me permission to fish the river" not really expecting a yes, looking me up and down he paused for a moment, then said "yes mate"
Now its 38 years since I last looked at this stretch of river, I knew that it held a few fish, but in that time the memory has faded somewhat. I knew also that a waterfall existed at the bottom end of the property and that the river narrowed in places.
To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect.
Back then the river was deeper, but which river wasn't, abstraction and the drought in the mid 70's would have spoiled things I thought, but perhaps the chub had returned and hopefully some gudgeon, the nice man told me of the presence of trout and asked that I return them if I caught them, seemed a reasonable enough request and I agreed.

Last night I respooled a small reel with 4lb line and dug some brandlings from the dung heap, found one of my £1 short rods and a float and a few bits, chucked everything in a bag and I'm ready for the off this morning.

No need for an early start, the gates to the property don't open until 9am on a Sunday and as its less than half a mile away, no need for an epic drive either, a right touch.

So did I land a monster on this first visit ? am I about to tell tales of a great fight from a resident leviathon, well no, I'm not. Fact is I chucked the bag down about 50 yards from the river, chucked it down while I fought through the undergrowth, christ its overgrown. Sitting here now my ankles are stinging and ripped to shreds from encounters with huge brambles.
Did I see any fish ? not at first I didn't. I tried to be as stealthy as possible and eventually, while standing against a fallen tree, I thought I saw a flash over a gravel area, sure enough, there was a shoal of chub, when I say chub, they were chublets but as I watched I saw some bigger fish move back upstream, some of these would have been a couple of pound at least and as they got alongside the bronze scales glistened in the sunlight.
Its a long time since I got this excited about a new water or this excited about fishing to be honest. I spent a couple of hours clicking away with the camera and the gear never left the bag. When I return I will be wearing waders or wellies at the very least and then, well the 4lb plus pike that I saw under one of the banks had better watch out.

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Christ it's all so beautiful and GREEN......I miss GREEN

Nice stuff buddy

funny ole year Lez, after all the sub zero temps in the winter, then a dry spring followed by a couple of months of hot weather, August became the coldest for 50 years.
Now its warm and raining all the plant life appears to think its spring again, must admit, I cant ever remember everything looking so green at this time of the year.
I will be wetting a line tomorrow, so expect an update soon.

Nice story Mugs, you took me there, was a bit weird but there I was. Want the hear the return trip, should be a goodun [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

lez wrote:Christ it's all so beautiful and GREEN......I miss GREEN

Nevermind green.....

A river with WATER in it would be good



I await your update with baited breath...

(I am fishing vicariously through the lives of you people lately... work, weather and flu, seems to keep getting in the way so I cant get out myself)

Make it a good one Mugs

Rainbow wrote:

lez wrote:Christ it's all so beautiful and GREEN......I miss GREEN

Nevermind green.....

A river with WATER in it would be good
I await your update with baited breath...

(I am fishing vicariously through the lives of you people lately... work, weather and flu, seems to keep getting in the way so I cant get out myself)

Make it a good one Mugs

Gotta agree with all those sentiments....as a matter of fact I think Dicks been a bit remiss with a latest fishing report too. I also need the occasional reference to Sooty Grunters (my favourite named fish) and I live in hope for something on Tarpon and other exotics...Bored with Barra.

Bring it on Muggsy


Sooty Grunters....Sooty Grunters....Sooty Grunters.... [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] cute!!!!

A quick trip to the tackle shop on Friday saw me stocked up with hooks, line, maggots and some camouflaged split shot .. yes I know, but its very good, so much better than plain lead coloured shot, it is you know, lets face it, its already caught me, and it was only a pound dearer :
I bought 3 packets of hooks to nylon, size 18 to one pound line, 16 to 2lb and 14 to 3lb figuring it was easier to tie loop to loop knots than mess about trying to tie tiny hooks to the mainline and I left the shop 28 quid lighter than I had when I entered the shop.

Saturday saw me visit a different shop for a pair of wellies. The selection left a bit to be desired but one boot caught my eye and I tried it on, perfect, so I call the assistant over and request the other boot that makes the pair, well he looks and looks, asks other members of staff all to no avail, sorry mate, he says, dont seem to have the other one, try this one, well that fits perfect too, but its a different colour, do I care, do I hell, a quick bid down to half price and I leave the shop with odd boots and ready for "my river"

Sunday 12/9/10

Given the overgrown nature of the banks, I've decided the best approach is to fish from the river itself, rather than destroy the bankside cover, weapon of choice for this trip is my 3ft rod and tiny fixed spool reel loaded with 4lb line.

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Creeping quietly into the shallows at the head of a deeper glide, I set up and started feeding maggots into the flow, almost immediately fish started to come back upstream, this looks promising

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Look, I know, but its no good fishing if you're not comfortable.

What a frustrating game this fishing lark is. Its down to age I know, and yes glasses are available, and yes I only require reading glasses, anything over 10yards away and I can see just fine, but even with reading glasses, size 16 hooks and 2lb line are almost impossible to see.
Eventually I managed to get a small float attached and a hook and even managed to get said hook into the rear end of a maggot, but bloody hell.
A flick into the flow, the float moved a yard and disappeared, sod it, must be the bottom, nope, a small chublett, this is going to be mental. At this point I should have stuck a plastic maggot on, but I didn't think of that until I got home.
Second fish was bigger than the first and 3rd bigger again, in fact that was the biggest of a few dozen, probably around a pound, but it was a fish a chuck and I didn't get the camera out until I was almost ready to pack up.
At one point I thought the pike may become a problem, he grabbed one of the chub but it soon let go, causing a birds nest behind the spool as the line pinged back.
As I was trying to untangle everything, my phone rang, I reached down and removed the phone from my pocket, as I did so I heard a small "plop", looking down, there in the sparkling clear water was my lighter, bugger .. ohh well, at least I had a copious amount of coffee with me.
Next week I will be armed with a 4 weight graffite fly rod and the seat can stay in the car. All in all, its about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on.

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Hope the ring tone didn't put the "chublets" off the bite mate.

Sounds like a great morning. They are a nice looking fish how big do they grow? Will you be targeting the Pike at all?

weird .. just been asked the same questions using exactly the same words on the secret site

I think the record Chub is around 9lb, I dont think there is an official double figure fish recorded, my biggest is 6lb 2oz from a river in the next valley.

Most of the rivers in the south east dried up in the drought of 1976. They are only just recovering though I doubt they will ever return to their former glory.

In the 60's the rivers were, in many places, well over 4ft deep and contained many species including stone loach, ruff and tom thumb and lots of white cray fish, since the drought most of the crays are now the imported red clawed, which are considered a pest and the mitten crab is taking over rivers and still waters all over the south of england.

As for the pike, yes, certainly, but I'm waiting delivery of some kevsteel x, a nice supple hooklink that the pike wont (hopefully) bite through.

secret site:?:
must be coincidense
TH

Anthony Holloway wrote:secret site:?:
must be coincidense
TH

must be

Looks like a really narrow Darenth - boy I remember trundling red NZ cheese balls for thumping chubb.

Just back from the Kimberly cruise - SPECIAL !!!!!!

Now I really have a better insight into why Dick loves the place - SPECIAL - and from the Michell Falls south (great view from the chopper) it should all be national park and the world heritage register. As for Montgomery Reef - breathtaking

its the bit of the Cray that runs through Kelseys.

now you better be starting a thread about the Kimberley cruise, or else

Well whilst it may look a lot narrower I always recaloll that that particular section ne3ver really had a lot of deep holes or sections so it really is doing well - certainly can never recall any pike being present anywhere on the cray whilst I lived there

The cray was always gudgeon and minnows and some of the best coloured sticklebacks (3 and ??10 spine if I recall correctly) and I alwaysd thought it may contain a barbel or two but never hooked one - oh yes and small tench below Crayford.

The Kimberly cruise is in the making - just do not know how to load photos on this site

Good stuff Mugs, we want more of it [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Go the pike [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

jeezus I was angry, bloody contractors, grass seed arrives and he wants to do the job on Saturday, Saturday I ask you, missing out on the final growing weather of the year.
So while I'm steaming, my mate suggests I go fishing, what a good idea ..

sod the grass seed

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15 minutes later I'm there.

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a bit more cagey today, but hey ho, beats working, I searched up and down and caught a few small ones, non on plastic maggot .. weird, before trying plastic sweetcorn. This did stir a response but the damn phone rang, bloody contractor, changed his mind so I had to pack up.
Never mind, was a pleasant couple of hours, thanks for the suggestion mate.

Mugs - love the "two Tone" gum boots but not too much difference in the green colours.Looks like a 3-4 weight fly rod set up and some non descript goodies in the folder - what are they ?

Keep the story going as there maybe a surprise or two somewhere

Getting warm here so heading down "South" soon for a redfin bash on yaks - no not to that dam

that 25 year old rig wallet contains a miriad of "bits and bobs"
things that "may come in handy one day" I dread to think how much it would cost to replace everything if you went into a tackle shop and bought it all in one go lol

Saturday 18th Sept.

Time, I think, to go that extra yard and explore the lowest part of my stretch. A fallen tree had barred my way before, but with the wellies on, I was able to walk around it and then negotiate the final 50 yards in search of some bigger fish.
On the way down I saw lots of chubletts but much of the 400 yards is covered with tall trees and sunlight rarely gets to the water and seemed devoid of fish of any kind.
Finally I was there, the last yard that I had permission to fish.

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A bit disappointing really, until you see the barrier that forms the boundry

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and beyond that boundry

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I know its not part of mine, but it would be rude not to check it out, so having rolled a smoke I stood and watched for signs of fish, I really should take polaroids, they were in the car, but I wasn't going back for them.
I had bacon grill in the bag so I diced some up, quarter inch cubes, and started flicking them into the space behind the fallen branches. I could see them as they floated a short way before sinking to the bottom, there was a sandy area clearly visible, about 3 yards long, bordered on each side with darker areas that were made up with silt and dead leaves etc.
Without polaroids it was hard to tell, was that a fish or a stick ? would have been a good fish if it was, then I clearly saw a chub move across the sand, one of at least 3lb and it was clearing up my luncheon meat.
So creep back into the woods and tackle up quick

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4lb line direct to a size 10 and I'm already wishing I had the 4 weight, but casting would have been awkward I guess. A 2 swan link ledger stopped with a BB about 6inches from the hook, dice some more meat and creep back into position between the nettles.
It sounds easy enough, I had already been stung to death, dropped 4 swan shot in the leaves on the floor, what silly sod thought of camo shot .. ho hum.

First cast drops behind the branches, not where I intended but I leave it, trying to squat in the nettles and holding the line between my finger and thumb. The little 3ft rod was waving about like I was conducting an orchestra, its exciting this fishing lark.
That was a pluck, I'm sure it was a pluck, it was a pluck, the line tightened to the rod and I moved as if to strike, what an unforgiving thing a 3ft rod is, the line parted with a resounding crack, and as I saw, what I believe to be, a chub in excess of 5lb glide up across the sandy area, my legs began to shake uncontrollably.

Gutted, perhaps the only chance I would have today and all down to a schoolboy error, I hadn't checked the clutch on the reel. I sat back in the woods and cursed a little only a little, yeah right, diced a bit more meat and crept back flicking bits all over the swim,then retired to the woods for a smoke.
Geeze fags taste awful when rolled with luncheon meat fat all over the fag paper, I hope the people in the old manor house cant smell it burning, they are less than 50 yards away.
Smoke over and having adjusted the clutch properly this time, I bait the hook and cast again. I cant hold it still, having seen 2 different fish much larger than anything else up to now, I decide some expensive rod rests would be the way to go.

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10 minutes later and the rod pulled round, I thought I had set the hook and this time the clutch on the tiny reel was singing like a demented cricket as the chub headed off downstream .................. and then it was gone, the hook had come out.
Time to give the fish gods best, today you win, but I will be back, be back very soon and without the toy gear, its ok having a laugh with a £1 rod, but for these fish, it just aint up to the job.
One final look downstream from the waterfall, I will return.

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I was expecting the boots tobe morediferent in color malco m .
bit of a let down.
TH

Brilliant narration and photos - I even recall that weir / brick bar

Wow I was there buddy, I really was...

30lb braid Mugs and some wire trace will sort it [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Wonderful weather for September, walking into the garden as the sun came up reminded me so much of being in Australia. It was so still and the late summer foliage dripped with early morning dew.
I had already taken the decision to fish this morning, the weather was just an added bonus. Everything was in the car, ready to go, better equipped this time.
The 4 weight fly rod had my little Fin Nor 300 reel attached, one that was given to me on my last visit to oz, by my mate Lez aka Phil Mckenzie of Osprey Outdoors fame.
I guess I should really have respooled her with new line, but the 4lb braid that it has held since 2007 seemed fine during the test's yesterday. I was actually in danger of removing my finger so I decided to leave it.
Same tactics, 2 swan shot link ledger, size 10 hook tied direct to the braid. Creep to swim, place rod in position and retire to woods to cut up the luncheon meat.
This done I return with a handful of cubes and gently flick them around the area, bait hook, roll a fag and sit down on the unhooking mat.

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I left the camera switched on and close to hand because a Grey Wagtail could be heard quite close by and a photo opportunity may arise. A nice gentle underhand cast behind the fallen branches, tighten to the shot, light fag and sit back to wait, but not for long.
Blimey, I might be undergunned again, I know I shouldn't mess about with the camera at this point but.

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Anyway, a short but hectic fight and I land this very welcome chub.

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Ok, so not the one I was hoping for, but safely unhooked and released into my stretch upstream, I recast.
Well I sat there for another hour watching Goldcrests in the tree above my head, the Grey Wagtail didn't return and I thought about the lack of Kingfishers before packing up and returning to work. But before I left the scene, I climbed a tree nearer to the area I was casting too and looked down, nothing, there were no more fish in the area, not a minnow nor fry of any kind .. weird.