I have been promising myself a visit to Farnborough & District’s stretch of the River Blackwater, since the start of the new river season, but the summer seemed to slip away, before I finally made the effort this week. It was early afternoon when I arrived and the sun was high in a clear blue sky, as I headed downstream toward my intended Pipe Swim, where a gas pipe crosses the river. Looking down into the river, I thought “Not today.” Despite recent storms, the level was at least six inches down, while the sun was illuminating every piece of gravel across to the opposite bank.

Continuing my walk downstream, I headed for another banker swim, where the flow runs down the inside to hug the right hand bend. Although shallow, the river is shaded by trees and I was confident of a steady stream of roach, once my groundbait had done its work.

It was a bit of a parrot cage and had to be careful not to snag my 14 foot Browning float rod on the overhanging branches, but this swim said Fish to me and I was keen to get started, mixing up a tray of liquidised bread, with ground hemp and ground pellets added, to fish the bread punch. Introducing a couple of balls of feed at my feet, I followed with the float rig, which veered off to the right and sank. Chub? Missed it. Another trot, same again. Leave it, then strike! It was a chub alright, three inches long! There seemed to be a solid wall of these bait grabbers close in, so I added six inches to the depth and fished down the middle, squeezing up firmer balls of feed. More missed bites from minnows and even a stickleback, but then a gudgeon. At least something to put in the keepnet.

I had gone up to a 7 mm punch of bread on a size 14 hook from the size 16 and this had made a difference, a small roach following the gudgeon. I missed a few more bites, which came back with the bread still on. My enthusiasm was waning rapidly. Instead of a bagging up session, this was turning into a slog. Suddenly the rod was bending and I could see a better sized roach flashing beneath the surface. My new state of mind now expected a pike to appear out of the reeds to grab it and head off before it reached the landing net. Oh ye of little faith. A nice roach.

Another ball of feed followed down the middle, which bounced along the bottom, breaking up as it went. The float was gone again and another roach was flashing beneath the surface, which was netted for safety.

They certainly were not crawling up the rod, as I had hoped, just the odd fish here and there. I couldn’t find a sweet spot, more or less feed, long or short tail, overdepth and held back, or run through. At least it was warm and not raining. Easing the float through over depth, stopping then running, saw  the rod top dragged down as a decent roach ran off downstream. I was very careful with this fish, slowly bringing it back to the landing net. The Blackwater used to be full of roach like this and this swim in particular.

It was now 4 pm and would soon have been fishing for two hours, maybe the fish were about to come on the feed at last? Ten minutes later a tumbling fight produced a sizeable dace, then no more bites.

I could have stuck it out for a bit longer, but I had looked forward to this day to be one a chuck, so why prolong the agony. Time to load up the trolley and join the evening traffic.

An example of how much of a struggle it was, can be seen by the lack of holes punched in the bait bread. Nothing to write home about at the end of two hours either, although I did manage to fool a few decent fish.

In the last ten years, my local River Cut has become choked with fallen trees, that have restricted the flow and caused a build up of silt, while for the anglers it has meant a diminshing number of fishable swims. Requests for the trees to be removed seemed to fall on deaf ears, then out of the blue, reminded of the potential flooding to new housing along the stretch controlled by the Braybrooke Nature & Fishing Club, heavy plant appeared and began dragging the trees out. I still don’t know if it was the local council, or the Environment Agency, but the offending trees are gone, leaving clear banks and new swims to fish.

With this in mind, I took time this week for an afternoon on one of the transformed swims, an area that I have passed by for years. To my right had been a tangle of branches and a silted up eddy, while now the flow was running along the opposite bank of the bend, offering an uninterrupted trot.

Plumbing the depth, I found less than two feet, enough to run a stick foat through and put a couple of balls of groundbait over, before following it with the float baited with a 7 mm punch of bread.. First trot over, the float bobbed, then stopped. Caught on a snag? I lifted the rod to be met by an explosion of power from a big carp, that initially zig-zagged toward me, then turned and accelerated downstream, while my 14 foot Browning bent double, despite the rapid backwinding of my ABU 501. I stood up attempting to follow the carp as it disappeared round the bend, but the 4 lb hooklink parted. The heavy link had been my concession to the larger carp, that now swim in this shallow little river, but a scale up of rod and terminal tackle has to be the final answer.

Looping on a new size 14 barbless hooklink, the float was cast out again, this time giving a couple of dips before sinking out of sight, the rattling fight being a small roach, more suited to my tackle.

A few small chub followed, then a better roach ran away with the bread bait.

The roach kept coming and the landing net was out for the first time with a quality fish.

Even the gudgeon were clonkers, fighting like mini barbel. This one with a distinctive golden flash on it’s cheek.

Regular small balls of groundbait of liquidised bread, ground pellets and ground hemp, kept the fish lined up in the swim, the float sinking out of sight without hesitation each time.

I began to catch dace, some decent ones among them, fighting all the way to my hand, making a photo difficult as they continued to struggle.

The 7 mm punch seemed to be selecting better roach and I went up to an 8 mm and proved a point.

My keepnet continued to fill and as I was nearing my three hour deadline, a swirl in my swim indicated that the big carp was back. I hooked a decent roach and as I readied the landing net, saw that the curious carp was following the roach into the shallows, before bolting away. I decided that this would be my last roach.

I still had plenty of goundbait left, but realised that I was outgunned by this carp and donated the contents of my bait tray, watching it’s tail disturbing the surface as it got it’s head down on the bottom. When I threw the punched squares of bread in, it came up and slurped them down in one go!

It had been an interesting session and an opportunity to try a “new” swim and will be back soon to try more.