Chub in the snow?

The snow that had been forecast has finally arrived, but not in great abundance here. We had about an inch on Saturday night, followed by some rain, and this morning it was not a very complete covering. But one of my fishing targets is to catch a decent sized chub when there is a good layer of snow, so today just about counted for that. In any case, if I didn't go fishing again today, it is unlikely that I will do for a few days as the forecast is pretty poor for the next five days or so.

My hope was that I might be able to get one in the long crease swim that I fished last friday, but soon after arrival and baiting, two swans arrived in the swim and proceeded to feed for about 10 minutes or pretty much the exact line I planned to fish. Like most anglers, I am not a great fan of swans and was pretty annoyed by this incursion. Sadly I didn't have enough bait with me to move further downstream and bait somewhere else, so I would have to wait it out. Still. this did give me a chance to take a few photos of me fishing in the snow.

The wretched swans, right on my fishing line beside the crease
Fishing the crease

I did try a couple of new spots a little way downstream, but failed to get any bites. But it was actually a really nice morning to be out. There were no other people by the river, though a micro-lite aircraft did fly directly over me at one point. The temperature was definitely above freezing and the snow was melting throughout the time I was there. Indeed, this is probably a bad sign for fishing in the next few days, as snow melt is the absolute death of most river fishing.

Back in the long crease, I may have had one, very-tentative bite but didn't connect. The same in the raft swim at the end of the crease. By 2:00pm or so I had had enough. In all, I was out for about 5 hours. My next planned trip is for Thursday or Friday if the temperature remains low. I plan to go all the way down to the far end, deeper swims and give them a few hours each.