Fools rush in where wise men fear to tread

Date fished 1/1/2022

9am until 3.30pm

New years day is usually a fishing day, so in the run up we checked the river levels.

Over 3 metres was an awful lot of extra water, however it seemed to be dropping as fast as it rose, so I decided to still give it a go. Ellis had decided to leave me to it, so I settled on fishing for Chub on the Tees. I would ledger cheese paste in the abundant slack water, that hopefully the floods would create.

I arrived at 9am, later than normal, I had decided to give the river every chance to drop. On arrival, it was still high but certainly fishable. It actually looked perfect. I was sure of a greedy Chub. I thought about the  blog, as I generally do and thought when I land a fish a fitting title would be "fortune favours the brave".

There is a weir in there, almost level up and downstream.

The sun was warm, this looked very Chubby

I fished each swim for about 30 to 40 mins before moving on. I was fishing areas that a few weeks ago was bank, there was alot of bushes, snags and slacks to fish. I was still very confident of a fish.  The leaves were constantly knocking my line, not as bad as first thing in autumn, but enough to distract and cause annoyance. 

With little rod action, I turned photographer and snapped away at a majestic river Tees.

In one swim, the shooters on the far bank got very loud. They must have been close as soon shot showered down on me and the river. This has happened a few times over the years. Not sure I can claim having been shot!? 

In one swim, my rod knocked and pulled round. I was not paying attention and knocked the rod off the rest. Needless to say, the fish was long gone. I had missed my chance!! 

Ellis messaged me to see if I braved the conditions, his message reading "fortune favours the brave". This was twice in an hour my brain had uttered this phrase. It must be a good omen!? 

I fished on until 3.30pm, giving some baited swims a try on my way back to the car. The conditions looked perfect still, the river having dropped further. As home time loomed, I wondered what the opposite of todays phrase was.... 

I nearly called it " not worth powder and shot" but the shooters would disagree!