800l of compost, are you filling in a pit?
Life is slowly coming good. My tackle shed / man cave mini fridge has been a Godsend, cold beer, milk for tea and bait.
So I woke this morning with a bit of a spring in the step and arrived at the Yeo full of the joys. The weather was such that I could see it was going to break today, that rain would arrive. Could I time it to stay dry or did I really mind getting wet? I decided on the latter, at least until the Bayou broke or similar.
Similar to last week except today I opted for the 14ft Normark Titan 2000 and DAM coffee grinder closed face carrying 2.6lb main. A wire stemmed Drake stick float carrying 5 no. 6 shot to a Drennan maggot 20 to 1.1lb trace.
With the bait apron filled and a succession of most pleasant dog walkers and joggers, the fishing was slow and the sun definitely AWOL today but it simply didn't matter - not to me anyway.
The odd small roach picked up the bait before a mini dace joined in, more roach and then a skimmer around 6oz. Obviously, not large but I can't remember the last one I caught on a river. It'd make SKippy jealous, almost certainly.
Small roach again before a chub around the pound mark made itself known. Again not huge but it stood out amongst the minis I had hooked so far. Again, although the fight was not exactly toe to toe it was fun and it whetted my apetite for bigger and better things and I actually thanked that fish as it went back.
I stepped up to two red maggots to see if it might make a difference. No - was the simple answer. The bites were sporadic and often unexpected, I'd get one as soon as I dropped in, then the next run would give a bite at 15 meters. There was no hard and fast pattern but it was, simply, enjoyable.
The time flew and I decided that my next trip here might well involve a feeder rod and some bigger baits to see if I can't winkle out some bigger specimens. I think I might try a grain of corn, I have a feeling that might up the ante.
So I packed up and was soon back at home with a big mug of tea and an even bigger smile. I know Winter has its place but, to be honest, I've had enough of driving to and from work in the dark and am looking forward to lighter evenings. That said, my warm and comforting cave has seen me tying pole rigs and oiling reels like a looney so it's not all bad, is it?
All the very best to everybody for the last couple of weeks of the river season. Hope it brings all you'd like.
Ok the hayfever beat me in the end but despite this I did enjoy my forage the other side of London fishing the tiny River Cray for the first time. Due to cutting my time short I probably spent more time driving than fishing, such is the m25 but it was pretty good for a Friday and I got back in one piece which as we all know is the main thing.
As for the fishing well the Cray at Hall place wasn't the worst place to spend the day although with it so sunny it was dog walker central and I mean they were everywhere. The river itself was a funny little thing, extremely shallow where I started and I actually caught all my fish in a foot of water in small holes under trees - my kind of fishing. You could see where some work had been put in to increase flow and oxygen which was good as I walked down the river with my gear, it was that shallow. Downstream it deepened up quite a bit but was very slow and I couldn't buy a bite, local knowledge would have helped but my return of 21 dace and 1 chub wasn't bad for a few hours.
The flow picked up a little during the day but that was when the sluice gates opened up - my nose
mg:....lolsThat's a nice looking float Steve and that strange shaped fish next to it - that must be bang on half a pound
.....lols
)
Arhh.....so you managed to find me local little river
It's certainly not the best and easiest rivers to fish especially at hall place
One of the very reasons why I don't fish at hall place is because of all of those dog walkers and letting em run around in and out of the river, this really pees me off when I see this especially during the spawning season and half of the dog owners ain't got a damm clue about the river
You mention a little further down stream it gets a little deeper but couldn't buy a bite, from hall place I presume you must of walked through the little metal gate and onto what looks like a mowed grass strip along the river with a few willow trees on the opposite bank and a nice little trotting glide with reeds,
I walked this stretch on Monday just gone and the river looked in reasonable condition, this bit of deeper section you can get some half decent roach, chub and good size dace from there.
As you can probably tell that the river you ideally need to rove about to find the fish and the bit actually in the sports ground of hall place fishing under the big willow trees can sometimes produce a few chub etc and also right up by the sports hall upstream literally as far upstream as you can go you may of seen a little foot bridge but at present is blocked off because of building contractors,
Shame you couldn't stand on the bridge because there's a big shoul of huge dace there that can normally easily be seen, I'm talking some 12 oz to 1 lb :thumbs:
When I first started to fish that little river I admittedly used to fish hall place and that particular little deeper stretch you fished but to be honest I personally don't fish that section no more mainly because of the dog walkers, can't be doing with that and also far to much dog doo-doo for my kinda liking
I've now got other sections of that river that I've been fishing and taking quality roach upto a staggering 2 lb odd which is incredible for such a little suburban river like this and it's free fishing and very little fished ( except for hall place )
Well done on yer session mate,
Be lucky
---------- Post added at 21:55 ---------- Previous post was at 21:43 ----------
especially after seeing that dirty great big outflow by the metal gate. Probably had it in my head it was polluted down there, although I can blame the hayfever for not catching much as everything must have heard me coming 
No match today so with the forecast dry but a gusty westerly blowing I sat for a while and contemplated where to go? Finally decided to nip down the town to my club stretch of the Colne, mission chub, not had one out this season so far and TBH haven't fished it much due the low levels and lack of colour...
Set up 5bb stick float to 3lb2 float fish line and a 14 Drennan wide gape match hook 0:12 bottom. Around 4' deep out in the flow so I pinched on a bulk of BB's halfway down to a 6 then 8 dropper..I also added a no4 back shot 4" above the float to help steady it in the upstream wind . Fed 2 Apple sized balls of liquy bread and left that to disperse through the swim. Minutes later I pinched on a piece of flake....
Nothing first time down so with a new piece of flake tried my second trot through, about 25yds down the float bobbed then buried.
A reassuring solidness hooped the ultralight over and it was fish on!
My first thought was a big bream as it wallowed a bit before waking up and worrying my drag. A minute later and after a fair tussle up came those familiar white lips on a big gob, a nice chub at 4lb 4oz in the landing net...
Happy with that as I fully expected a blank was on the cards TBH..
I was also impressed with my newish 13' ultralight which dealt admirably with the fish in the current.
Rested the swim while I scoffed my sarnies before starting again. First trot through on flake again another bite which I'm fairly certain was the same fish once I had it in the net...
Mission accomplished I decided to pack up as the wind became wet and I held little hope for improvement.... Nice couple of hours .....
