River blues

Almost 5 weeks had passed since my last session on running water, it felt longer, almost like waiting for the rivers to open after the long closed season.

I only had the time for a short 3 hour session on Monday morning, a trotting session for pike. Although the levels had been falling for days, the river was slightly up but more coloured than I had hoped for. I headed to a shortish stretch that has around a dozen or so fishable pegs, carrying minimal gear I was aiming to fish as many pegs as time would allow.

I was surprised at how much the riverbank had changed in the last month, the strong winds stripping the trees bare and the heavy floods taking the remains of the bank side vegetation out to sea, winter isn't far away.

The session flew by, I fished at least 10 pegs with zero interest in the baits I presented. I wasn't surprised. I usually struggle when the water is coloured, add to that the water temp dropping down to 3°C, it was always going to be hard.

I'm unsure of when my next session will be, but hopefully the weather settles and I can get on the riverbank whilst conditions are more favourable for pike fishing.