Fishing Report: 4th June 09 - A Crap Week!

There are times in all our lives when work and life (in my case house hunting) conspire to ruin a good days fishing. For me, recent weeks and probably the rest of the summer are to fall to those evil "important matters" that really we could just do without. Anyway, aware that my fishing passes are likely to be severely curtailed in the very near future I made the effort to make the best of what time I have before life gets really complicated.

Saturday 30th May 09

I decided to try the Wet Dock at Ipswich for a few Mullet as it was so nice , perfect in my opinion weather wise. Unfortunately the heat of the afternoon (when I prefer to fish) coincided with the high tide in the river, when the boats move about and with at least a dozen boats an hour moving through it turned out to be a really quiet session with not even one follower to show for 4 hours chucking a baited spoon at the opposite side of the dock. I did see a swirl off one small fish close in and a jumper further out but that was it ..... best bit of the day was chilling out watching the world go by with an ice cream with my 2-year old.

Sunday 31st May 09

Not to be defeated after the previous days lack of success I decided to use the leftover Ragworm and some frozen Sandeel on the Colne. It was a cracking afternoon and although the prom front was busy it was fairly quiet past the end of the prom. I fished the bulk of the flood at a favourite spot not too far along but the NE wind and small tides meant that the colour was dropping out of the water and things were quiet - I managed one bite to rag which resulted in a 3 inch long Bass but at the top I decided enough was enough and I headed up on to the saltmarsh.

I passed a couple of anglers (seemed quiet for them too) and headed further up having noticed that the gulls were working on the tideline at which point I thought my luck might change but rather than being fish the gulls were chasing it was a black fly hatch, with the gulls picking off the ditched flies for most of the afternoon. By about three hours down I hadn't had a bite and packed up to what has to be the most glorious sunset I've seen for a long time ... and headed home for my Sunday dinner.

Thursday 4th June 09

Still smarting from 2 really quiet sessions I decided to try a spinning session upriver, despite it being a bit early in the season. The North easterly winds had dropped a bit and stayed pretty constant direction-wise and that generally means clear water in my part of the river ... and true enough the water was much clearer than usual, however still a bit too milky to ever be that successful. Although there were a few (very) small schoolies hitting shrimp on the surface there seemed a distinct lack of better fish and I didn't have a single strike in 3 hours of trying. One surprise of the night was a little strike at the end of one retrieve turning out to be a small shore crab - very impressive really when you consider I was bringing the lure in quite quickly.

So there it is really ...... about 11 hours fishing for one micro Bass and a crab; so much for the summer fishing so far!

Fishing Report: 21st May 09 - River Colne, Essex

After my last session on the river I took a long walk again in the hope of a good night with the local schoolies. With bright sunshine and the winds dropping I was hoping for some fair weather sport, arriving at the spot about 3 hrs before the 10:30pm tide armed with a pound of ragworm. It was the sort of night that you spend the winter looking forward to and to be honest it was just nice being there, which was a good job as the fishing was generally naff and not at all as lively as my previous session.

I started the night off well by blowing up the 5500 on the first cast (must remember to set the mags to full when I've done oiling it just in case I forget to set the brakes on the first cast) but after a bit of cursing and a new set of gear I was back on the go. I spent the bulk of the early flood in the (very pleasant) company of an old fishing friend from school who stopped by for a chat on his way back from crabbing and managed 3 small schoolies while we chatted. When he left just before dark he must have taken the luck with him as I struggled for a bite, finally managing to bring the tally up to 6 small Bass by the top of the tide, but that was it for the night.

I would usually have expected a few fish on the ebb here but sport was out of character for this spot and it produced only one bite which turned out to be a crab. Though I continued on, I finally got the hint at about half past midnight and set off on the long walk home. At least on the last cast I did manage to reel in the rig I lost on the first cast so I didn't have to return to retrieve the rig and line the next day.

A cracking night and a vast improvement on sitting in front of the telly but not too much to shout about on the fishing front .... such is summer on the Colne .... you have to learn to take the rough with the smooth.