Swipe left for a troll

Date fished 14/7/19
8am until 3.30pm

3 men in a boat today!

Dave, joined Ellis and I aboard Big elbow for a day lure fishing. Ellis and I were after perch and if a pike came along, we would be happy. Dave was targeting pike, quick to point out " if I get a Jack today, I'll be happy!"

Setting off down stream, we were soon casting in our usual areas. Me missing 2 quick hits on the small pink paddle tail. Ellis also missed a bite so we were confident of catching later.

Dave wanted to troll his lures, which means slowing the boat down and pulling the lure behind the boat using the boats speed. It was Dave that caught first, a large branch was his prize!
A bit further on, he was in again. A good sized pike soon rolled on the surface but the hooks came out. No prize this time.
A little bit further on and he was in again!! This was turning into a rout, no perch for us but Dave had managed a pike.

We carried on, and soon Ellis and I were missing fish in other areas too!! We saw fish follow the lures, had knocks but no fish. It was looking deperate.
As we travelled on we said "morning" to a few open water swimmers. There were anglers on the bank pleasure fishing, match anglers, anglers in boats, rowers, swimmers and people strolling the bank. It was good to see so many people enjoying the river.

Ellis soon got into the act with a perch on drop shot. We alternated between trolling so Dave could target Pike and then stopping for us to fish for perch.

A few more perch for Ellis then a bigger fish took his drop shot lure. It's normally me that catches the little pike, but today I let Ellis have the prize.

I really was just making up the numbers, as after a few more knocks I still had not caught anything. In truth to Dave's first branch, Ellis and I had both caught a few big branches now too!!
I spotted a great looking swim, we stopped and started to cast. I cast under a tree, nothing. Ellis cast under the same tree, his rod hooped over and a much larger pike was pulling back.

The final nail in the coffin was when we got to our usual snaggy spot where we always catch, 2 people were fishing in it, so we had to leave it for today.

We tried everything as we approached the boat yard, but today was not my day. A blank on the boat!

The final final nail was getting back to the boat yard and being told that we could not leave the club till 19.30 as the roads were closed for a bike race. We are sat in the club house drinking tea/coffee that Dave has made!

Three men trapped in a boat club more like!!