A short session on the Tees.

[northern eye]

The phone had barely rang all morning so I knocked off at midday and drove straight to the tackle shop for a pint of maggots. It was a mild seven degrees and the January sun was shining bright without a cloud in the sky. I knew that by the time I had got my gear prepared and had driven through the town traffic, that time would be short so I opted for an unplanned session on the nearby River Tees.

I packed light, my Drennan Series 7 11ft Feeder rod and reel, net, rod rest and gear in the pockets of my waistcoat. The river was slightly up and flowing well as I balled up some dead maggots with some Sensas River Black groundbait and got out my catapult, ready to walk the banks and feed the spots that looked promising. To my suprise, within the first 200 yards of the mile long stretch I passed about eight anglers and after speaking to some of them, the river was fishing well and some grayling and chub had been caught. I carried on walking, away from the heavy concentration of anglers and found my first spot for baiting up. The river is divided here by an island and this creates a deep pool and a snarl up of fallen tree limbs and branches before two fast runs flow either side. I baited as near to the fallen trees and snags as I dared and moved on.

After the fast run the river widens and slows, the banks here are dangerously steep but there are some areas where the bank's fallen away and you can get down to the water, I chose a previously lucky swim and baited at the near side, where the water swirled and caused little wirlpools only about 20 feet out. Carrying on along the banks. the river arks completely round on itself and shrinks to the width of an underarm cast but it runs deep on the bend and here, where an old bridge stantion stands, is where I baited next. The final two spots were quite close to each other but couldnt be more different. The first ran shallow and quite fast over rocks and a rocky beach meant no place to put the rod rest. I simply pinged in maggots down the centre here, quite a few in quick succession as I would be returning here soon and just wanted to give any fish there a taster. The second and final swim was deep, wide and slow. I baited down the centre and over the far bank just past an uprooted tree.

That was the baiting done. I sat and had a cuppa and smoked a cigarette whilst watching for any signs of fish in the peaty coloured waters. I had covered about half a mile and chosen five good looking and different swims to cast into on my walk back.

For the first I clipped on a medium feeder, half loaded and cast a size 18 hook with double red maggot over to the far bank, setting my rod high on the rest I watched as the tip settled into the gentle pulse of the rivers flow. I couldnt reach the far side with my pult so I sent in around ten feeders of grubs before I had my first indication that something was interested. The tip dropped back and then slowly curved round with the flow again. Once, then twice in succession and on the third drop back I could feel the vibrations of a positive bite in the rod handle and struck, allowing the sensitive rod to curve into the fight of a nice 2lb chub. I eased the fish to the net, taking care on my light tackle, and within a few minutes I was cradling a wonderful looking Tees chub, the tiny hook embedded neatly in her big rubbery top lip. I popped a couple of maggots in her mouth as a treat and set her back in the water a little way down the bank.

Back to it and the feeder was cast down the middle followed by some maggots pinged in upstream of where the feeder held bottom. I pinged in about five grubs every now and then but, after half an hour of nothing I decided that this spot had yielded it's treasure and I moved on upstream.

Removing the feeder I made a quick link leger with two swan shot and fixed this to my snap link. As there was no place to put my rest, the bait would be cast in up stream and allowed to be carried by the flow, I would cast within throwing distance so as to chuck maggots with my left hand whilst controlling the rod and line with my right. I switched to a single red maggot and after a dozen maggots, in went my bait, rolling and bouncing along the rocky river bed. It was pretty quiet for while so I tied on a longer hooklink and within minutes I felt a sharp tug followed by another. I waited, slowly taking up the slack and lifting the rod ready to strike. Another lightning fast bite vibrated down the rod but this time I knew the maggot had been eaten for afternoon tea. I struck and connected, to my joy, a glint of silver on black and the slender body of a grayling came into view. My first since last winter. A few more casts proved fruitless so I reeled in and moved on, the sun was shrinking in the sky and I wanted to be at the final swim for dusk.

The next spot, known as The Deeps, is more famed for it's pike than anything else but if the pike frequent it then so must their prey so it was back to the feeder and a cast up against the old concrete structure on the far bank. I made a number of casts here but it seemed lifeless, maybe a pike was in residence, so I wasted no time in getting to the next swim. I had three bait balls left and I chucked one of them in near the boil followed by a hand full of grubs. I opted for the link leger set up, allowing my single maggot to dance around naturally at the edge of the swirling water. I had plenty of bait left so went a little harder on the feed and I was immediately rewarded with a succession of dace and strangely, for this time of year, some chunky minnows and a bullhead!! It was pleasurable to be catching these little fish, especially the dace, and I was reminded of days long gone when we would happily catch them all day with nothing but an old butter tub of maggots, our first rods and a thimble full of knowledge.

As the sun slipped away behind the trees and the sky fell from deep red to dark blue I made my way to the final swim of the day. In went the last two balls of bait and a few pults of grubs and I went over to see if any of the other anglers upstream had been lucky. Three hardy souls remained and all had caught, like me, grayling, chub and dace plus a few minnows thrown in for good measure. Now was the time for a big chub and I went back to the swim with confidence as I also suspected that these guys had put some amount of bait in during the afternoon and a bit of it would have washed downstream and gathered in the snags where the river divides, hopefully attracting feeding fish right where I was to cast. I fitted a small starlite to the rod tip and went back on the feeder packing it with maggots and casting upstream of the snag, allowing the feeder to roll into place and settle, just a meter infront of the of the snarled up branches.

It would be hard going in the gloom, steering a big chub away from this danger zone so I decided to strike at any good bite. My cast was just right so I fed with the pult, leaving my bait in place, watching the green glow of the starlite against the black silohette of trees. The temperature was dropping fast and I pulled my hood tight around my face as I crouched down at the bank. Gently, I twitched my rod to check it had not been snagged but the line was free and the tip again relaxed into a gentle flouresant bobbing motion. All of a sudden the tip dropped back and rod shook violently on the rest, pulling my hands from inside my sleeves I was too late and it settled once more. Here we go, this is it, a big chub to round off the day - even a winter barbel, although my end tackle would be no match if it was and it could end in dissapointment. I was alert now, ready to strike I watched the tip intensely. I waited.

My patience and concentration were rewarded, the tip dropped back and then swept round, without question I struck and wound down to stop the fish darting into the snag and snapping me off. It felt good, or it fought good, either way it was not giving up easily and made a dash for the nearbank and my line rubbed worryingly on an overhanging tree stump. I reached right out with the rod, it's 11 foot length not quite long enough to steer the fish back into open water. The creaking sound of the line rubbing on the tree was all I could hear and I dropped the rod deep down into the water and wound down, pulling the fish under and away from the roots of the stump and gaining some line I readied the net, allowing the fish to give it's last fight and the rod to take the strain until she surfaced with a splash. A nice chub. Sensing that at any moment the weakened line could just snap the net waited in the water and with one smooth motion the chubby fish was safe. Turning on my headlamp revealed the full glory of my catch. Around 4lb of River Tees chub, deeper and fatter than my earlier fish. Wonderfull!! Slipping her back into the water after treating her to a pinch of maggots, she swam into the dark waters to fight another day.

It was freezing walking back to the car, passing my fellow anglers upstream as they fished on into the night. Two chub, a grayling, dace, minnows and a bullhead. Not bad I thought. Not bad at all.

[Bluesbro]

Sounds like a really good days fishing, and areally good report to match!!

Regards

Joe

[Rob M]

Brilliant report mate!

[Fishing Forum Admin]

cracking read mate !

[Banana Steve]

Great Read, Nice one

[northern eye]

Cheers guys. I will hopefully have a digi camera soon to add some pics to my reports. Thanks for reading.