Anker's away!

Jeff and I headed off after seeing the ladies on their way to work at the NEC on Saturday morning. As per usual I probed Jeff for the lowdown on todays location and tactics. I had taken 10 minutes the night before to check out the website for the farm the so I quizzed Jeff about the weir detailed as one of the attractions, "What weir?" Jeff replied, this is when I hoped I had read up on the right place.
Once we had secured our day tickets we headed off to the start of the permitted fishing on the River Sence, we were greeted with the River being at least 3 feet lower than Jeff's encounter less then two weeks earlier. We walked the two fields closest to the farm buildings to scout for a starting point, we were amazed to find as little as 10-12 inches of fast flowing water with fresh streamer weed patches - quite early in the year we both thought! The water was crystal clear and was being powered by a small weir further up the by the road bridge - it looks perfect for game fish, but what about the the course fish?

I setup a float rod to try and battle against the flow but was soon to write this off due to the rapid changes in the bed depth and hidden reed beds. We moved to different pegs down a half mile stretch to try and get the best from this shallow river, after about an hour of perseverance we decided to move to the confluence of the Sence and Anker in search of deeper water. This brought us to a spot known as King Dick's Hole, an 'S' shape section about 7 meters across with plenty of room for trotting round both bends. I put a sleeper rod out with a maggot laden feeder try double my chances for the first bite of the day. Jeff was getting a few enquiries but nothing positive, possibly roach nibbling the end of the bait. A couple of lure fishermen turned up on the opposite bank which cut short our attempts at this spot.

Still no fish!

After negotiating a rickety fence and a drainage ditch, we accessed the Anker another half mile further down stream, the river had gained at least 3 feet in depth and turned darker in color. Out went the feeder, bring on the fish!

I waited, the lure fishermen passed by, I waited, the lure fishermen came back,

All of a sudden there was activity from Jeff's peg, I ran to perform landing net duties - fish on! After a good fight a large shape loomed from the murk - A nice chub made it's way to the landing net - it barely fitted in Jeff's landing net! After the usual pomp and ceremony of unhooking and photo op it weighed in at just under the 4lb mark - in lovely condition! After returning the fish to the swim we moved further down stream.

We stopped at what looked like an old mill pool - as Jeff remarked - it looked very 'chubby'. The possibility of a blank was looming on the cards as it was now mid afternoon.

By now I had put the float rod away and settled on the feeder approach. I opted for a mashed bread and maggot cocktail in the feeder with a bunch of mixed maggots on a size ten hook. It after the third cast the rod tip twitched, I had been battling against the flow of the river all day so I almost put it down to the feeder slipping - until it went again!

I connected to a fish! Now to land it!

Jeff came to my aide with the landing net and hoisted the fish from the water. It was a chub, it looked a good size - I was nervous as Jeff weighed it - in my head the drums rolled - would it be over a pound? "2lb 9oz" Jeff said, I was so excited (can you tell?)! My biggest fish since my return to fishing!

A safe return to the water a few pegs away and back to the fishing. I was still getting over from the adrenaline rush when the rod tip went again, fish on! I tweaked the clutch as this felt like a better fish and I only had 4lb line as my hook length. the fish was landed, and looked in top condition.

Jeff weighed the chub in at 3lb 2oz, cue the happy angler photo #2

After a few more casts we headed back towards the farm to try the Sence again for more chub with no avail! The day had resulted in 3 bites and 3 fish - a long day for just a few bites but a 100% hit rate and a very happy angler!