Two Roach, No Perch. Keep moving

Date fished 2/10/2020
9am until 3pm

After a restful Thursday it was back to the fishing. My legs were sore from Wednesday as it was spent hunched down on wet slippery banks, today I took the chair and thought I would find a nice little spot to trot maggots for whatever came along.

It might not seem like a big deal, but the last time I took my chair to fish on the river was............... I have no idea! As I usually rove about, it's just extra weight I could do without carrying. But not today, I was going to a club water, it's a short walk from the car and I wanted the comfort.

After the last Tees trip, I asked some people about shotting Chubber floats. The large SSG weights always tangling around the light hooklink. I was told to get some olivettes,  I found one in my tackle box but would buy some more from the tackle shop. Armed with this one now I was ready to go.

I had to drop the kids off ( actually, not a euphemism) in the morning, pop to the tackle shop for maggots and then I was heading to the river. Later than my usual start, but I was still hopeful for some early fish. I had the float rod, closed faced reel loaded with 4lb line, 2 pints of maggots, a few worms and a little bit of terminal tackle.

Bought from the tackle shop

I settled into a swim and put a few maggots in as usual whilst I was tackling up.

I was hoping to fish a line a little way out from under the rod tip. The river was flat calm, like a pond. I set up a 2.5g bolo float and with the olivette I already had plus one shot to hold it and the swivel between reel line and hooklink, the float was sitting perfect.

First trot through and a little chublet took the bait.

I put it in the keep net and carried on fishing. Feeding on the same line, I was soon catching regularly. All chublets of various sizes. The olivette was doing it's job, after a million casts I had only one tangle! And I think that was down to user error.
As I fished on, the wind picked up. Soon the float was going upstream in the Wind, then the line was being blown back on the spool and finally the loose feed maggots were being blown back to my fall at my feet!!
The wind was relentless, I came in under the rod and continued to catch. Eventually getting a slightly bigger chublet that got me reaching for the landing net.

I have mentioned it before and I am fairly confident that I was catching all chublets, and not dace. It's amazing how many small chub are in the Tees, they kept me busy. Soon, I caught something different though, a Roach interrupting the Chub party.

As I continued to battle with the wind, another club member set up in the swim next door. He was after larger Chub and was going to be sitting it out until dusk. I on the other hand, settled on calling it a day at 3pm. The bites had dried up and there was no sign of a perch anywhere!

I carefully took the fish from the keep net and had a look. I had caught 29 fish, if I had been counting as I went along, I would have tried for 30! I landed every fish that I hooked, which was good. No bumped fish, although the missed bites counter would be large. I really did have alot of fish going for the bait until the wind came and blew everything everywhere!

I said farewell to the other angler and trudged up the hill to the car. I was thinking about my catch and the thought of " Two Roach, No Perch, keep moving" got into my head.
You know the song? The kids song of "one finger, one thumb, keep moving"??
The tune got stuck in my head and all the way up the A1 I have been humming it. They say to get rid of a song from your head you have to pass it on. Sorry peeps!!

One finger, one thumb, one arm, one leg, one nod of the head 
Stand up, turn round, sit down keep moving
One finger, one thumb, one arm, one leg, one nod of the head 
Stand up, turn round, sit down keep moving
One finger, one thumb, one arm, one leg, one nod of the head 
Stand up, turn round, sit down keep moving
We'll be happy and bright!! 

Thanks you lot x