Fishing Report: 17th May 08 - River Colne, Essex

With a few Ragworm left in the fridge from the previous evening session in Ipswich I decided it was too nice an evening to waste and headed once again for my favourite stretch of the local estuary. The tide was perfect to fish the early flood at one of my favourite spots and the slight northerly had, as it usually does, allowed the colour to drop out of the water a little. As I arrived I was quite encouraged to see two or three different shoals of baby Bass raking the surface, sending showers of the local Brown Shrimp jumping out of the water in their efforts to escape so I decided to try a bit of spinning first, hoping to take advantage of the unusually clear water for this time of the year.

After an hour of fruitlessly throwing a 4 inch Redgill at the river with no return I took the hint and changed over to the light ledger gear and settled down amongst the weed covered rocks to await my first bite on the bunch of Ragworm bait fished about 50 yards out. It took three casts before I had a sniff of a fish, a small Schoolie of about 4 oz but to be honest after a week stuck in the office it really didn't matter what size of fish I was catching or even whether I was catching for that matter; sometimes its just about being on the river for a couple of hours and away from the normal madness of life.

There's always plenty to keep you interested here if you can be bothered to look and listen and as I sat awaiting the next bite I could hear a Cuckoo in the distance, calling out across the marsh. If that wasn't sign enough that spring is here then the Common Terns fishing along the shore confirmed it, although as the light started to fade and the temperature started to drop it didn't really feel much like spring.

By 9pm the only other action I'd seen was another small Bass about the same size as the first as well as a couple of crabs and so I decided it was time to head off for some food. It had got decidedly chilly as well and I wasn't kitted out for the cold. Not a great night fishing-wise by any standards but as I headed for home the river had one last treat for me; my first sighting this year of the local Marsh Harriers working their way across the marshes behind the sea defences, probably heading towards their usual nesting site in some woods overlooking the valley.