A Morning On The Nadder

[Simon N]

Just Before Christmas Steve (Banana Steve) Mentioned To Be That He Always Goes And Fishes The Nadder On New Years Day, And Asked If I Fancied Joining Him This Year. Ive Heard Steve's Stories About The Nadder In The Past And About The Wide Variaty Of Species The Nadder Hold Such As Roach, Skimmers, Grayling, Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout, Dace, Chub And Even Carp. The Gudgeon Record Even Comes From The Nadder.

Steve Mentioned About Fishing The Free Stretch Of The Nadder As Its One Of The Best Bits That He Fishes. He Did However Mention That We Would Have To Be Up Early To Leave As They Are Popular Pegs. We Went Armed With Tisbury Exchange Tickets Just Incase All The Swims On The Free Stretch Were Taken But When We Arrived Just After Light There Was No One Else About Expect People Walking There Dogs. We Jumped Into The Two Swims On The Road Bridge, I Opted For The Swim Down River As It Didnt Have So Many Over Hanging Tree's. Im Fairly New To River Fishing And My Casting Of A Stick Float Isn't Anywhere As Good As Steve's.

I Opted To Start Off By Fishing The Stick On A 13ft Waggler Rod With An Old Closed Face D.A.M Reel. I Really Need To Purchase A 10ft Waggler And Feeder Rod For Some Of These Rivers Ive Been Fishing As Of Late. Steve Started Off On The Stick Also Fishing The Far Margin Where He Had Had Good Success In The Past.

I Started Catching Quickly With A Couple Of Small Roach And A Small Chubb. Steve Was Really Struggling On The Float To Start Off With And Couldnt Get A Bite. I On The Other Hand All Of A Sudden Hooked Into Something A Long Way Down Stream And Seemed A Better Fish, It Tried To Get Into The Tree Roots On The Far Bank But By Some Miracle I Just Managed To Pull It Away In Time. What I Thought Was A Chubb Turned Out To Be One Of The Biggest Dace Ive Ever Caught (Unfortunatly I Didnt Get A Picture, But You Can See It In The Video Below). Steve Was Still Struggling On The Float And Changed Over To The Feeder And Started Catching Straight Way. He Managed A Nice Grayling Over 1lb And Several Trout. After Seeing Steve Catch Reguarly On The Feeder I Decided To Swap Over Also. But I Couldnt Manage Anything On The Feeder, Not Even A Bite.

We Packed Up About 1pm As The Rain Was Heading In.

We Both Enjoyed Our First Session Of The Year And There Will Be Many, Many More To Come.



Simon N