Do you ever have one of those days? With local rivers fining down but still pushing hard after recent floods I decided to do a bit of quivertip fishing for chub.

I made mistakes before even leaving home. With a cold day in prospect I decided to wear my Sundridge Artic Edge suit. I cooked all day, make mental note, only wear Sundridge suit in true arctic conditions! Mistake number two; I took my chair. I don’t usually take a chair when fishing for chub as it usually entails a fair bit of walking and I’ve always got my unhooking mat to sit on. I had to carry it with me all day and didn’t use it once!

Upon arriving at the river I found it in good nick, about a foot above normal winter level with a hint of colour. With this in mind I was a bit surprised that six swims and three hours later I still hadn’t had a bite.

I could probably count the number of tangles I get in a season on one hand. Today was payback time, four huge tangles before midday I stopped in the sun for a cup of coffee.

The summer (and recent) floods have had a radical effect on my local rivers, some swims have disappeared but some new ones have been created. I settled into a swim I’d not noticed before and within minutes had a bite. I missed it. Ten minutes later another bite, this time I got him, a nice chub of about three pounds. No more bites and two swims later I was thinking of moving when the tip twitched and pulled steadily round. I missed it. Five minutes later another bite, this time I bumped it. For goodness sake! Usually that would be the end for a swim but I was sat in the sun so decided to give it one more cast. Out of nowhere another bite, this time a savage pull that took line from the reel and a good fish was on. It swam deep and heavy diving for the near bank. Chub tend to give up once they’ve had a gulp of air and here it was a good chub closer to five pounds than four wallowing on the surface, I eased it towards the waiting net. It came off. I shouted out loud!!

Two hours, three swims, two tangles and two more missed bites later I decided to call it a day. The walk back to the car saw me crossing several small drainage rills in two of which the water came over the top of my boots. Get me home!

Walking through the door it was with trepidation that I put the TV to see how many goals my team had been beaten by. They had won five nil! Every cloud really does have a silver lining.

TF

I also had one of those days yesterday....on account of your team beating mine 5-0 you ******!! - and I was there to see it in painful reality!!

Seriously, good win and all that but we were truly awful...almost as bad as the ref Only consoltation for me is that at least we now have 2 decent defenders for the league (they weren't playing yesterday - cup-tied - and boy were they missed), luckily no points at stake and no goal difference to worry about, and at the end of the season that'll probably be far more important to us than a cup run. Also, thank god it wasn't leicester

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Sorry about that Jeff

Fair few goals in the games between the two sides this year!

TF

Erm yes, 11-4 to the Baggies though! And never with a full pitch of players by the end Anyway, more exciting than that girlie premiership stuff eh?

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Had one of those days yesterday too. But the worst part of it was a group of yobs (schools off for half term) that persisted in following me about throwing rocks, shouting abuse and even asking stupid questions like: "Ow, mate, are you fishing?"

Tossesrs!! (and not worth the hassle to challenge them when alone). Couldn't even get a peaceful days fishing after a week of twelve-hour shifts. Very annoying.


I gave up after 15:00 because they had ruined my day.

Thought I'd have a crack at a grayling on the fly yesterday. Not many of em down this end but you never know.

Yet again the day got off to a bad start; driving along I glanced in my rear view mirror, why is there steam rising from the back seat of the car? Pulling over I found that my flask had deposited about 3/4 of a litre of hot coffee inside my fishing bag! Great!! Back home, spare flask, more coffee, an old towell and I'm underway.

On arriving at the fishery I spent a few minutes cleaning up the mess before setting off for the river. A long walk to the far end of the fishery ensued, no coat today but before I'm half way there I'm sweating like a Gold Cup winner! Must work on my fitness! The river looked good. I started to work my way back to the top of the fishery. My casting seemed to have gone backwards since my last outing, how does that happen? A few hours later I'm at the top of the fishery and yep, you've guessed it, not a bite! It's just as well I enjoy walking in the countryside because I can't fish for toffee nuts at the moment!

TF