New river season

Date Fished 16/6/2021

7am until 2.30pm

It's a few days before the start of the new river season on the 16th of June. I have just started to get my kit ready for four days of fishing, I have three days off work so I am planning on fishing 16th to 19th - all on the Tees and Swale. So of course this is what mother nature adds to the mix.....

Not disheartened, I continued to get my kit together and will fish when and where I can. 

Update on 16th - The weather might miss us, but I will keep you updated. As for today, I met Ellis at 7am at Morton to kick the river season off with some Chub. 

As I arrived another car pulled into the car park, some other anglers wanted to enjoy June 16th too! Ellis arrived and we walked to the river. We were keen to see how the river had changed, as there had been alot of change over the winter months. A whole new area seems to have been made in a swim that used to have a bank on both sides. The river now has burst through and created a loop back to the main river. 

We walked to the place where Ellis caught the chap last year, this had changed too. Shallower and wider. We had a look but decided to fish just before that bit by some trees. I cast in and waited. I was using short rods today. I had bought two river advanta ambush rods in 7ft and 5ft 8inches to see if a shorter rod was easier in tight swims. It worked a treat and after a few minutes the rod wrapped round. I missed the fish and was cursing my luck. 

We then moved to the Barbel swim, there were some good Chub and Trout in there but no Barbel. We fished around there for a while and Ellis had several takes on Prawn but no fish landed. I decided to go back to the tree swim for one last go before we moved downstream. This time I connected and my first Chub of the new season lay in the net. At between 3 and 4 lbs, it was no monster but it made me smile. 

I moved downstream and fished some more. When Ellis caught up with me, he had had some luck too. A Trout his prize on Prawn. Pulled the rod right round in the Barbel swim, he must of thought it was another Barbel! 

I continued in a few swims but the river was really low, and with alot if weed on the bottom. The line was constantly being covered in weed. We came across the anglers I had met in the car park. They were in the new swim created as I mentioned above. This will now be called the aquarium!! We saw 20 plus Chub, Barbel, Pike and Trout all milling about in here. Will be one to fish another day. We moved on and fished a way downstream from the aquarium. 

Ellis saw a fish move in front of him and cast his prawn towards it. The fish turned and he saw it engulf the prawn. A lovely fight on the pin followed and a cracking Chub of exactly 5lb lay in the net. 

I had lost a fish in my swim and was getting knocks. I finally connected and was soon landing a Chub of my own. Unweighed but between 4 and 5lb.

I was still getting bites but didn't connect with any and Ellis spotted some Grayling rise. He quickly changed from the Prawn to trotting gear and first trot through caught the lady of the stream. 

We fished several other swims and saw plenty of fish but sadly caught nothing. As it was getting warm we walked back to the second swim, Ellis looking at his phone when his rod screamed off and his second Chub lay in the net. 

We fished another few swims but with no luck. We were back to the first tree swim, so I tackled up the shorter rod and tried my luck. Nothing this time, so that rod is still to be christened. 

We headed back to Stockton, I have a room in a shared house for three nights and we needed to sort the boat for another trip on Friday. Some expert driving with the trailer and Big Elbow was soon afloat. Ready for our next adventure!!