Thursday, December 20, 2012

Far from ideal....

The river levels are continuing to fluctuate - mainly between high and very high ! Towards the end of last week the Eden was just starting to settle down to a fishable level for the coming weekend, then we got the usual weekly downpour which brought it up on Friday night, not a lot though, it began to drop on Saturday morning and there was still hope for Sunday. Then it rose again Saturday afternoon and that put paid to Sunday !

By Monday morning, the gauge on the Environment Agency website showed the river dropping, but still a touch high at 0.97m. Conditions were far from ideal but this was probably my last chance to get out before Christmas and maybe the last of 2012 so I decided to brave it.
I know the stretch I was heading for so knew which pools were likely to fish and which would be wadeable, but I would never set foot in nor advise anyone else to wade a swollen river that they were not familiar with.
Weighted bugs were the order of the day and fairly hefty too if they were to reach and hold bottom long enough for the fish to get a look at them. I was expecting sport to be slow and so it proved, but perseverance paid off, and three good fish came in quick succession - the first was a nice 41cm specimen, quickly followed by one of 39.5cm


The best of the three was 45cm


More searching produced three more smaller fish in consecutive casts, had I hit a shoal ? possibly, and if I'd come across them earlier I'd have spent a bit more time in the area, but by this time it was raining and the light was fading fast, so, more than happy with my lot, I decided to call it a day.
The rain brought the river up 90mm that night, it dropped the following night before the rains returned. The river level has risen to 2.57m and with more rain forecast every day up to and over the Christmas period that could be the end of my fishing for 2012, no complaints though - I've had a great year !

I WISH YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS !!