Gone fishing . . . . .

The weather has been pretty poor for the last few weeks as far as fishing is concerned - indeed ,I have heard from a few sources that this seems to be a national problem. But the season is coming to an end and so I have to go regardless of conditions.

After two or three slightly better days, there is then a big rainfall. I had thought that I might be able to get a trip in before the river rose too much but this turned out not to be the case. Maybe up two foot when I arrived it rose another foot in the next five or six hours.

Hopeless conditions are chub fishing of course - I should really have gone barbel fishing on the Windrush instead. But it was not unpleasant out and I did see a decent amount of wildlife - some deer, a fox, etc.

The Evenlode stretch that I have been concentrating on for chub has really changed over the last few years. This is especially true of the deep bend where I have had many of my best fish. The raft at the top has gone completely and the tree at the bottom has collapsed into the river diverting the flow sharply. Hard to tell with the river so high, but maybe this will have spolit this little bit of the river.

So six hours out with not even the slightest possibility of a fish!

The flooded deep bend swim - usually I fish out where the last line of reeds is visible

Once or twice I have had some decent fish by the tree on the near bank - not today though!