Last Day

With the river season about to end, I booked Friday off to have one final roam of the river before it closed. So with the gear packed and all set to go, it was time to load one more thing.......

Riley has been with us for nearly three years and he is a huge part of the family, so knowing he'd be at home alone, I thought I'd take him along for day.

Doggy bits were packed and extra water taken and we set off to the river.

We arrived nice and early and bumped our way along the river before settle on a down stream stretch. Riley was eager to get out and soon was madly chasing the mad march hares across the fields and bouncing in an effort to catch any pheasants that you might have flushed out.

We soon found some lots of lovely places that looked like they would hold perch and chub and we set about trying to entice them with all sorts of micro plugs, spoons and spinnerbaits.

The morning was warm and it made for a pleasant morning and as we roved, Riley started to pay more and more interest in what I was upto rather than the ducks and coots on the river. Soon I had his undivided attention and he was having thoughts about going for a paddle.

Around mid morning after many follows from micro pike, one decided to take the small roach patterned plug and Riley wagged his tail with excitement.

The pike was soon landed even on the UL gear and it certainly was a micro predator and would have struggle to make a 1lb in weight.

We continued for the rest of the morning before we had a break at the car to consume our lunch's.

The afternoon session promised so much, the water clarity improved and with abit of flow, I was confident that I could caught some perch and chub, instead of pike.

We head to weir pool and did abit of vertical jigging for the perch. Nothing.
We cranked baits through the flow and spun spinnerbaits in the deep. Nothing.

We worked a bait next to an under cut and bang, fish on.

Alas it was a.......

.....pike on an spinner.

We worked the pool for a good hour, but despite our best efforts we had follows from esox only.

We moved back downstream for another couple of hours and managed a third, yep pike. We had follows from a solitary chub, but the perch were elusive, however we did get a zander to follow on a tiny Mepps spinner.

Back home, it was all to much and soon it was time for a nap