A brief morning trip to Duxford

My main focus for fishing this week are planned sessions for Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, when I will aim to fish into the mid evening on each occasion, hoping for a barbel from the Thames. But today I reckoned I could sneak a short session in first thing this morning at my local stretch at Duxford. This is the first time I have fished here for a few weeks, my main focus being the stretch a few miles downstream. In part, this was because I didn't want to walk too far if I was only going to fish for a couple of hours

I settle in a long glide and baited with a dozen catapults of hemp and corn. It was actually quite chilly after three very mild mornings and there was a hint of mist rising off the water. Several deer were feeding opposite, a couple of kingfishers flew past, and a heron slowing made its way across the field. All very nice.

The main flow was actually quite fast and having started with a heavy leger weight, I then changed plans slightly and switched to a 4-swan shot link ledger, just enough to hold on the edge of the faster water. For the next hour or so I slowly searched down the edge of the fast water, eventually taking a 4-04 chub from the lower end of the swim.

I switched swims to a spot just below Duxford Ford, where there was a slightly slacker area near my own bank in contrast to the fast flow coming over the ford. In the next hour I had four bites, missed them all and retrieved heavily mangled corn back on each occasion. This didn't seem like chub, and were perhaps quite small fish, but I did have some very solid looking pulls and was surprised to have hooked nothing.

So by 10:00 I was back home ready for a few hours work before the new week. The focus now is on Monday afternoon when I plan to fish 3:00 till 8:30.