Sorry for the delay in my posting on the Blythe trip. Where do I start? this was my first outing on the Blythe and Jeff had built my hopes up with reports of 4lb+ chub on his last visit. I am in search of some decent fish and hoped this would be the occasion.
We left Coventry and were parked up within 20 mins, Jeff lead the way bank side via a walk down a few country footpaths and over the odd stile. I thought I had packed light but was cursing my seat/tackle box/nets by the time we found our starting point.
The Blythe is a tiny river, my first of this size, maybe 20-25 ft at it's widest and 3-4 ft in places. The first swim I plumbed was about 3ft deep but the water was so dark you could'nt see the bottom. I opened up with a waggler but soon changed to a stick float to cope with the flow. I had a small chubblet at the first peg but that was about it, Jeff and I walked further down stream, picking the odd peg to trot down but most of these ended in snags.
This trip was turning out to be a tough one, every other cast ended with snags or tangled tackle from the head wind. There was very little cover from the wind so both Jeff and I resulted in using our brollies as wind breaks for some respite. Jeff targeted a pool of 40 ft across where he had heard reports of some bigger fish, I targeted its outlet point which was 3 ft wide with a fast flow and opened up to some reed beds - this produced a nice couple of roach about 4-5 oz in fine health. Jeff came around on the move again after little success.
We moved to the end of this stretch of river, this was a shame as there looked to be a tantalising stretch of river with a road bridge just further down. The spot I picked had a couple of feet of lillies in front so Jeff Lent me a longer landing net. I decided to chuck a sleeper feeder rod out packed with hemp and maggots and continue with a stick float. After a couple of trots I hooked into a nice roach but bumped it off, I had a good look before it escaped. The next cast resulted in a 6-8 oz roach, which in comparison probably put the one that got away at around 1lb mark - Jeff got excited that I had a shoal in front of me but alas the bites dried up with not a sausage on the feeder.
We moved pegs back towards the direction of the car to save a longer walk later. The river was around 25-30 ft wide here, on a bend with little to no flow. Jeff was surprised at how little we had caught and thought it was down to the low water level. This is where we had our best run on catches - this is where we came face to face with an alien invader - the crayfish!
We caught more crayfish than fish after this session. We did pick up the odd fish in between crustaceans, including a very nice perch for Jeff at 1lb 4oz to lob worm. The sun started to go down, the wind kept blowing the clouds hadn't moved - we were both cold due to the promise of bright sunshine all day and matching clothing to suit.
This was one of those days, although I'm glad we caught, it was a hard days fishing/crabbing! I have put my order in for a tackle bag for my birthday to lighten my kit. Here's to the next trip, may that better fish come and maybe I invest in a pack horse!
photos to follow!
Kev
Posts
