The forecast for today wasn't good, strong winds and squally showers. Coupled with yesterdays rain lifting the river a foot overnight I wasn't very optimistic about the conditions. I decided to make the effort to explore a new area based on a tip from two bait anglers. I'd looked on google earth and there appeared to be at least one area of promising water. The path was very overgrown, and every bramble and hidden log had me stumbling along. Every little side stream and drain which had carved deep grooves in the bank meant a detour up the steep bank and around. By the time I got to the piece of water I wanted to fish I was exhausted! The steep banks and deep water close in also meant it was impossible to fish it! So I turned round and headed back downstream in the hope of finding somewhere I could get to the water. I found one spot on a fallen tree where I could make a cast and duly landed my first fish of the day around two and a half pounds. I'd struggled to get into my precarious position and slipped this one straight back. The river was pushing through and the rise in water had lifted tonnes of weed which was making fishing almost impossible. I couldn't get more than a couple of turns on the reel handle before the crank baits were festooned with weed. Half an hour later I was back on familiar ground at the head of one of my favourite pools and after five minutes, most of which was spent removing weed from the lure I was ready to give up and sat down to have a coffee. As I was removing the flask I noticed a couple of Dichoso Custom Baits Umiushi worms that had fallen out of their packet so I rigged one on an offset worm hook that I found in another compartment in the bag. The lure was just heavy enough to cast a reasonable distance. I was casting across the river and trying to dead drift it to allow it to sink down to where I figured the fish would be hunkered down on the river bed in the strong flow. A few minutes later at the end of a drift as the worm lifted I had my second of the day.
The weed was still proving a problem as it was clogging the line and catching on the trace swivel and clip even though the lure was rigged weedless and the hook point nicked into the skin of the worm.
I kept going despite my frustration and eventually had a solid take which resulted with this nice 4lb fish on the bank.
With the fishing being slow I decided a move was in order and drove to another area a few miles downstream. A salmon angler was fish at the head of my favourite pool on this stretch and with the difficult conditions I decided to call it a day and set off back to the car. Like many anglers I find it hard to walk past a likely looking piece of water and I couldn't help myself so I dropped into what has been a productive swim. The weed was even worse here but a few casts produced another reasonable fish.
It's nice to finish a session with a fish so decided that was it and went home satisfied that I'd made the best of near impossible conditions.
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