i had a day on the River Stour last sunday, it was a fentastic day for fishing, not too cold, overcast and light to moderate winds.
we visited a tackle shop to buy day tickets for the Throop estate and stocked up on bait 2 pints of bronze, 1 pint of white for me, by the time we got to the river it was maybe 8.30 am and already a good few anglers set up on beat 2 (which is where we had planned to fish) they looked to be targeting barbel and pike mostly.. my hope for the day was a river roach. We crossed the river to the opposite bank negotiated the tretcherously muddy bank and found a couple of agreeable looking swims.. the water was carrying quite a bit of colour to my eyes, but then my usual water is a chalkstream..it was decided that heavy feeding and bringing the fish to us would be the best tactic, so first thing was on with the bait apron and started loose feeding whilst tackling up and then keep chucking in the freebies. the river was much deeper than i am used to fishing, i ended up choosing a middy barbel trotter avon cocked with an olivette 2 feet from the hook and a small dropper shot 6 inches from the hook, total length was around 8 feet float to hook, 13ft match rod and my youngs bob james super lightweight spooled with 6lb firewire and 2 ft of preston reflo powerline (0.13mm) were the weapons of choice finished up with a size 16 widegape at the business end.
i was plagued by minnows throughout the day and must have caught over 50 off the bloody things (wwhy is it when you want to livebait for perch you could buy a sodding minnow!!!) it took 45 minuted for my first bite of the day the float dipped under and i connected with a modestly sized fish , the morse code like tapping suggested a roadh, moments later my first redfin came to hand, only 12 oz but i was a happy man... things slackened off for a while, i persisted, throwing in loose offerings then casting out, following different lines to try and get some action.. i was daydreaming a little wh.en the float slammed under i struck into a chub, it gave a good account of itself and finally was landed weighing just over 4 lb, i had another 2 chub of similar sizes in the next few hours.
The swim went quiet again (except for the minnows) eventually i got another bite, it felt like another chub,it didnt feel especially weight to start with then it kited out into the middle of the river it felt nice... all was going well until it made a beeline for the snags under the bank i was stood on, it was well and truly dangled.. i thought it was not coming out, in a desperate act i let out slack line, hoping the barbless hook held fast, i waited... 5 minutes passed, the float remained still in the currenti assumed that the line was in the snag and the fish was long gone... as i tightened up on the line the fish shot off into the middle of the rive, the scrap was back on, eventually another fine chub slipped into the net.
the dusk was just starting to show an i was close to the bottom of the bait tin. with only enough maggots left for a couple more runs through the swim the float slid under for the final time, after a breif scrap a roach just shy of a pound came to hand..
nice river, for a tenner well worth it
Trotting on the Dorset Stour
Steve
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