Late Session On The River

[chrismdd 787]

Decided to pop down the river last evening to try for some roach and dace. At this time of year when the water is fairly clear and slow due to the fine weather the fish tend to feed better a lot later.

 

Prepared some mashed bread and took some corn and got to the river at 8pm. Local farmer was there just packing up after catching a few fish so had a natter that lasted a good forty minutes! He was saying how many years ago (1960's) he had once seen an otter down there on the floodwaters. I mentioned that when it gets dark you can almost guarantee seeing one and I would even bet a tenner on seeing one that evening. Eventually set up a light tip rod with breadflake and a bobbin rod with corn.

 

It was a nice evening and fished all the way till midnight to catch some nice roach although I did get a lot of hassle from the signal crayfish. Overall the I put the tip rod away and just had the majority of fish on corn with the bobbin set-up that definitely helped in watching bites develop and then hitting them. Also it was a good method to recognise the pull of crayfish and so just gently ease the bait away.

 

However the best part of the evening was hearing the sploshing downstream of an otter travelling up river. Switching my headtorch to red light I put the torch on when the ripples were right in front of me and saw two pairs of eyes glowing back. Turning to white light both otters were in full view with one hissing at me as they swam in front just a few metres away before getting out on the opposite bank and disappearing upstream. Later on after eleven they made their way back and one swam even closer and circled the swim a few times, and I managed to catch a nice roach as it was diving in the swim searching for crayfish.

 

Not the biggest of roach but a lovely evening. If anyone has some tips on photographing otters at night it would greatly appreciated.

 

[Flacko 1,747]

Good little read mate sound just to be the water like that and a few roach enjoying the river on your own no pressure atb Flacko