Sunday Roast.

[mithrandir]

Well today was probably the hottest day of the year sofar, and guess which pair of muppets decided to go and sit in the sun dangling some maggots, yes Claudia and I.

We had decided to do a really early start, I left Claudia in charge of alarms, so that plan failed and we finally hit the river at about 8am, I seriously needed a break today, after what must have been the worst week of my life for ages, two car accidents, my brother having a relapse on his cancer and me resigning from my job( they refused to accept it and I have a meeting with the directors at 9 on monday morning to make a final decision).

Having met a man and his son setting up in the carpark swim, and briefly chatting to them,they were new to the waters so we gave them a bit of guidance and left them to some father son bonding.

Off we trotted to some favourite swims at Britford, I was just setting up and the local river residents must have decided I was providing breakfast, as they moved in and waited for me to start feeding the swim.



I just waited a short while and they moved on, but not before they had trashed the first swim, I half heartedly loaded a maggot feeder and cast out to the deep hole I know behind the fallen tree, hoping that the big grayling might still be there.

A few casts later, after a distinct lack of bites I got a lovely twitch in the rod tip and after a short fight I reeled in my blank buster



A pristine little perch of around the pound mark.

There was a slightly jealous look from the lady in the next swim, she was still blanking at this point.

I carried on here for a while, getting some small salmon parr, chublets and small grayling, nothing of note but some light relief from the stress of the week.

Soon I decided that it was drying up in this swim so I headed off to my favourite chub swim, the sun was blazing by now and all the "experts" say that chub are not caught in the bright sunshine, so I was not confident.

I soon set up and cast out into the flow and watched the feeder gently roll along the bottom, I had come down to the smallest feeder I had, 12 grams, as the flow on the river was a lot more gentle than I am used to there, and even then this small feeder was only just being moved by the current.

Suddenly the feeder began to motor down stream, matbe it was a bit of fast water, but no, it was a medium sized grayling the had taken the bait



this was about 12 to 14 oz, in this heat I was not hanging around unhooking and weighing fish as I did not want to distress them too much.

then Claudia appeared, she had blanked in the first swim and had moved downstream of me, hoping to fair a little better.

Next cast brought the desired effect for me, a satisfying twitch, twitch, tip bending over, chub bite. I headed straight for the snags and I steered it away and managed to get it into centre stream, then it seemed to stop the fight and let me bring it into the net, I kept it in the net in the water whilst I wet the unhooking mat and weigh sling, I also called Claudia over to get a decent photo ( she has not downloaded it yet) and I weighed this in at 2lb 13oz.

I soon had a second chub of 3lb 7oz



the bites were thick and fast, each time they would give in very quickly and come to the net, I had half a dozen like this before the bites stopped in that spot, all between 2 and 3 1/2 pounds. I cast around the swim a bit more and found some more grayling, dace, small chub and some small perch. I did find a spot to the far right of the swim that had a few big chub in it, both that I caught were more serious in the fight and did not submit so easily as the first ones did.

Eventually this swim died and I decided to head for a swim on the way back to the car, I phoned Claudia, who by this time had moved further downstream in search of a swim with some willing fish in it, it sounded like she was finally getting bites and was bringing in small chub so she was going to hang on there for a while.

I headed up to my final swim and played for the last hour or so using up my bait on small dace and chublets, I did see one large trout a few feet infront of me, but it would scoot off as soon as the feeder hit the water, and return as I reeled in, I was in plain sight of it and it seemed unfazed by me.

Finally we set off home in search of cold drinks and icecream, but the aftersun lotion was more needed, we have both come back with a good dose of sunburn, and the temperature sensor in my car said it was 32 degrees as we drove back, funny that we saw no other anglers all day.

At least I have dispelled the myth that chub do not feed in bright sunlight, and I hope I have settled the bad luck I have had for the last week.

Roll on next week, things can only get better.

[fishypaul]

nice entertaining report mike,love the pics,i really must come down and spend the day with you,

best of luck at work mate

[Banana Steve]

Cracking Fish Mike and a great report. As Paul said hope things go well with the job.

[pingu]

cracking day

hope all goes well now

dave

[Greenheart]

Just found this report. Great read mike & a good bag of Chub for a hot day. I've always found Chub will generally feed wether it's hot or cold. Very obliging fish. However when its hot, you usually need to find their hidy holes & put the bait right on their nose. Hope you get sorted with the job mate...

[Catfish Virgin (Still!)]

Well done on a good day out Mike, I hope you sort(ed) your job out.

I've always considered Britford an Autumn/Winter fishery but your results clearly show it's an excellent all year round mixed venue.

[Fishing Forum Admin]

After a week like that I think the trip gave you some peace time for yourself . Great read mate