7.30am until 2pm
With the weather not knowing what it wanted to do, I decided to head to the Tees at Broken Scar to fish for Grayling. My usual fannying on Friday, checking river levels and weather reports got me thinking about recording the river level visually along with the measurement. I might do this in future on here, we will see.
Anyway, with Ellis busy it was a solo trip again. I always try to see the river situation first as I enjoy that and it uses my club waters. I have some still waters as back up, but I decided to go with the Tees.
I left work and headed to Fraser's Angling in Gateshead for bait. I always go here when needed as it's close to work and there is nothing closer to home. I did the usual thing of looking around, a quick chat with the guys in the shop and I was done. I bought a pint of maggots, would be plenty on a cold day and a packet of hooks to nylon. Just to top up supplies!! Or that's what I tell myself. Size 18 to 2lb line, pack of 10 would be plenty on a cold day.
Getting the kit ready was easy, one rod, closed face reel, some floats, weights, hooks, bits and a net. The alarm was set, I was ready.
Arriving early, it was cold. There was a frost and the river was higher than I thought based on the river level reading. It was going through at quite a pace. Today was going to be interesting, and definitely not a wading day.
I baited a line away from the turbulent water and trotted down.
Snag. A quick pull and the hook length broke. I tied another and away I went. Not to dwell on this throughout the blog, this happened 16 times!!! I left at 2pm because I had used all my pre tied ones, ( a packet and a half) had tied more and lost them and finally got snagged and lost the lot.
Before all that, it was a good day. I caught 4 Grayling and 3 minnows. You are always likely to catch a few minnows with maggot and small hooks, but as Grayling was my target, I am glad I caught more of them.
They gave a good fight in the faster water and all were positive bites.
3 of the 4 were actually behind the snag, which was why I kept going back!
The loose feeding today was hard. My swim had faster water and slower on the inside. To get on the inside, I had to cast further into the flow and it drifted around. It's where all the action was. I honestly couldn't say if any of my loose feed was ending up there though!
The first Grayling was netted, not expertly, but netted. I had extended the handle too far, so when I went to net the fish the net and pole shot off the end and ended up in the water! Fortunately I managed to get the net ( my new one!) and pole back. I still miss the one I lost at Morton hahaha.
Half way through the day, I went for a walk. Slipping about. All the swims that looked fishable river wise had dangerous banks and all the safe looking swims had raging torrents in front. I walked back and stayed in the snaggy swim.
Mick, another angler from our Fb group, dropped by to pick up a reel and it was nice to meet in person someone I had only ever typed with. We had a good chat but unfortunately I couldn't catch a fish for him. Got plenty of snags though!!
Once again, as this time of year will dictate, I could have not bothered today. But with 4 Grayling caught, it was a successful day.
It also gives me an excuse to go back to the tackle shop too!!
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