Effort equals reward ?

Unfortunately that wasn't the case today, I was up before 4am, in the car and set off by half past and had parked up by just after 5. I had a 15 minute walk to the bank, then I had to clear a peg for the day. The giant hogweed was everywhere and as it hadn't been disturbed for the last few months it was approaching 12ft in height, it took 45 minutes to clear a path and a section of bank.

I was targeting the chub but also hoping for a barbel, I had a 1.25lb avon set up with a blockend end feeder using maggot, caster and hemp as bait. This was fished mid river in a deep section for chub or whatever came along. I also had a 1.75lb avon set up for the barbel using boilies and various pellets as bait, this rod was fished in all the likely areas that I could cast to with either a pva bag or a stringer offering some attraction.

It didn't take long start getting knocks on the lighter rod and after a few missed bites I suspected I was being 'minnowed', eventually I hooked one of them and it turned out to be a small chub the size of a minnow! 

Target species just at the wrong end of the scale

I stopped feeding maggots and fed a mix of caster and hemp in the feeder and used an imitation caster on the hook. I was getting the odd indication but I was sitting on my hands until something more positive happened. Eventually the tip went round, but it turned out to be a dace of a couple of ounces. I was recasting every 5 minutes to get some feed in the swim but bites were very sporadic, I caught a few more dace to around 5/6oz mark but the small chub were ruthless, even taking treble imitation caster. A small jack grabbed the feeder and made a mess of the rig so I packed that rod away first.

First dace of the day

The heavy rod was quiet all morning, despite regularly changing bait and covering a lot of water I couldn't get any interest. I ended the session just before 1pm as I had things to do in the afternoon, the session didn't go as planned and I probably should of moved to a different area, but after spending so much time clearing the bank I wanted to catch something from it.

I am hopeful of another session this week, possibly an evening chub or eel session hopefully it will be more successful than today's effort.