AN EVENING ONE THE RIVER DEE...

A warm welcome to this midweek blog update, Tuesday has for me now become a day where i start to think of the possibility of a sneaky midweek trip after work tomorrow and with the nights slowly beginning to draw in time for a river session after work is surely running out and we must take advantage of this time as before long we will be depressingly coming and going from work in the dark.

Work of late has been getting me down i have to say as the repetitive nature of my job leaves me craving freedom at times and i guess that is why i love the serenity, calmness and peace and quiet of the river bank so much.  We recently moved offices and for most the extra walk or the new surroundings worried most folk, for me, well it was the fact the new building contains only  9 windows, 9 planes to view the outside world where i am now lucky to catch a glimpse of a passing seagull  as opposed the wealth of nature we used to witness around our old building where you would see the swallows arriving on the fields and then departing so anonymously with the impending winter, V flocks of Canada geese and the occasional gliding buzzard all now not part of my yearly life walking into work or glancing out of my desk window but i guess most of all i miss seeing the seasons change the coming and going of the leaves , that crisp first frost tickling your face as you left your car in short there is a lot to be said for the loss of a desk side window lol.

Looking out of the 9 panes now writing this weekly blog update on my lunch break i can feel that suffocating feeling i did last week like an animal in a zoo i can smell the freedom of the outside world beyond the small windows, last week i could take now more i had to get out and with it a evening session was arranged on the banks of the serene and open banks of the River Dee,  her banks i knew off me the natural antidote for my most urban of illnesses.

"An Evening On The River Dee"

The drive to the banks of the Dee on a week day was a brand new experience for me an even more so given the lack of visits to her bank over the past 9 months but driving there i was back on autopilot the car knew the way, her wheels had worm down this path so many times before it was like she was bounded by her own tyre tracks. Passing Chester we headed to an area we had yet to wet a line in and given the few swims in this area we did not know until we passed the last bend if the pegs we had chatted about along the B Roads was free or not.  My heart sank as a parked car on the grass verge had me thinking we were out of luck but thankfully the parked car on this occasion belonged to a dog walker and not an angler.

Like two naughty children skiving from school to go fishing we unloaded the car and began setting up our swims.  The time we had set up the time was 1pm and i knew we were due a tide this afternoon but was unsure just how much it would effect us being just that little bit further upstream.  The river quite low i trusted to luck and set up on the lower flat part of the swim with a good foot or so down to the river surface, surely i was OK up here i thought as i plumed the depth and in front of me i found a nice depth for trotting, plumbing up further down i noticed it shallowed up on the inside about half way down the swim but as the flow came round a sweeping bend and of the outside of a tree above my swim i hoped i could hold a line about a 3rd of the way across as i had miles or river below me to trot into, surely i would draw fish into my swim from here and catch a few i thought.

My uncle settled in upstream on a peg that was not really ideal for trotting but with a tide due the other shingle bank peg was a no go and in all intents and purposes it was a feeder peg he fished situated between two trees fishing the float it was an all or nothing attempt to catch the fish under his feet. 

Trotting a stick down between a third and half way across the river feeding hemp and maggot i was soon picking up the odd dace along the fast glide.  The first fish of the session was a nice dace which was closely followed by a few of its family members and all looked well for a steady session.

I was optimistic of a good session ahead for us both as i could hear the striking and subsequent splashing of my uncle picking up a few fish above me.  During sessions fishing a river for silvers you do hit those points where you get a few bites and your confidence is high and you feel like you are nailing it, of course its an amazing feeling that all us anglers crave and love...but we all know that can all be dashed as quickly as that confidence was built and catching a decent snag can bring that feeling on really quick, but for a brief second i thought i had sorted it was the line slowly started coming towards me and i lifted to see me line clear of the water attached to a whole length of line from a snag on the inside right across the whole river to the far bank trees.  I can only presume someone on a feeder had snagged on the far bank and pulled for a break and their line had snapped at the rod end and the whole lot of line had sunk and snagged on the inside snag in effect putting line across the whole river, quite possibly, barring setting up on a sunken whole tree, a trotters nightmare.

It was not long after hitting this snag and then hitting another one against the far bank that i first noticed the river backing up a bit.  Over the next 20-30 minutes the river backed up and backed up and its level rose higher and higher.  In the picture above you can see the whole of the peg is under water where before the level was down the bank a good few feet.

After a while the river began to flow back on itself and this is when i got my better, love it when you know a bite is coming and you can really strike into it.

It was during this spell i put together a few decent fish including this very nice roach below, easily one of the highlights of the session

Unfortunately the tide began to ebb and after a few moments the normal flow of the river was resumed and with it the trials and tribulations with the snag.  The problem was not knowing exactly where it was situated as i guess the flow of the river would cause it to flow and i did go on to catch it a few more times before the session was out, very frustrating!

I made a big change to my plans and it was similar to my uncles where i tried to get the fish really close in almost in the slack in front of me and it did seem to work as a few small dace came quickly to the net and then it died and died solid for a good half hour.  Feeding the swim gently i began to get a few knocks of feeding fish and then the float slid away confidently, striking into the fish i was instantly in trouble with snags all around me and a tree to me right still half submerged i was connected with something solid and with a 1lb 7oz bottom on i was not confident.

From the feel of the battle i instantly ruled out a chub or barbel as is had not made a solid run yet and  then with a few flicks of its tail instantly knew i was into a billy and a nice one to boot.  The past fights on the dane have put me in good stead for dealing with perch and as soon as the fish came within sight it was scooped up, no second chances, they go mad in the landing net but at least you bank the fish. 

a 1lb 13oz perch and what a year for perch it has been for me!

After this perch i picked up a few more dace and roach but nothing really to shout home about and hitting another snag 30 mins before wrap up time i put out the pike rod for the last part of the session but nothing showed on it.  My uncle had a steady session catching some really nice roach and dace.

my net 

uncle net

All in all it was just what the doctor ordered and great to fish yet another new stretch of this fantastic river.

till. next time,

tight lines 

Danny