Having joined local fishing club Hartley Wintney this season, mainly for it’s fishing on the River Blackwater, I have been making an effort to get to know some of the swims over the club’s winding six miles of river. Today I was on the Cattery stretch, which begins with a long weir pool, where the river runs out from under the road bridge. Judging by the lack of vegetation in the first swim, this is the most popular, with the river pushing over to the opposite bank, passing under willows to finish with a fast shallow run. It shouts barbel and big chub, but for me, I was looking for some reliable roach and chub on the stick float with bread punch, so began a down stream search for a decent trotting swim with a bit of depth and overhead clearance for my 12 foot Hardy. This was easier said than done, with most swims only offering two of the three.

I found a compromise, where a bit of twig pulling, by wrapping my landing net around protruding clumps of oak leaves, created adequate underhand casting room, although with the first fish, a small roach swung in, the rod top went straight into the overhang. The result was that the float rig had to be made up again, with more trimming, before I could relax and resume fishing. Being on the inside of a bend meant shallows in close, while a fallen tree was directing the flow down the middle. All seemed ok, with up to three feet of water over clean gravel, and when the 5 No 4 float dragged under on the bottom, I was pleased the feel that it was in fact a roach.

Having spent an hour trimming and tying on hooks, I had used liquidised bread straight from the bag, squeezing up an egg sized ball and lobbing it in at the head of the trot ten yards out. I decided to fish this out before adding more. A small chub was next, fighting hard from the end of the trot.

The wind had got up, lashing the surface with rain and I wondered if our parched garden at home was also benefitting. The wind was putting a bow in the line, pulling the float downstream and making my under hand cast to the middle difficult, so I moved upstream along my bank, away from the overhead canopy, but with shallower, faster water in front. I put in another ball of liquidised bread and began catching  small, five inch chub every chuck. Considering a move back, I then caught two small roach, followed by the clonker roach below, which managed to get entangled in a sunken branch at my feet. I netted the lot out, put the roach in the keep net, then set about sorting out yet another tangle. More time wasted.

These small rivers are a challenge, full of deep pockets, which can hold some good fish, as I found out once I was fishing again. I had just put in another ball of bread and dropped the float in behind it. The float bobbed and sped off to one side, just like a tiny chub, but I struck into a solid fish, that just kept going, spinning the handle of my ABU501 taking line, before I clicked the bail arm button to free the line and ease the bend in my lightweight rod. This fish knew where it was going, downstream and across toward a half submerged branch. Putting pressure on, while backwinding, the fish, a chub of about two pounds, kited across the surface and into the snag. Solid! I lowered the rod and gave line. It was still solid. I pulled for a break and a waterlogged stick came back.

While retreiving the hook from the stick, I heard a plop and watched my keepnet, with it’s bankstick fall into the shallows at my feet and begin drifting downstream. Grabbing my landing net, I managed to get the net handle through the bottom metal hoop of the net, pushing it upstream and onto the bank. Pulling it in, the net was empty. The soil at the edge of the bank was soft and had given way with the weight and pressure from the extra flow. This was the last straw, I was ready to pack up. I’d spent more time, untangling than fishing.

I’d passed a possible swim on the way down and decided to give this one a go on the way back. After hastily packing everything into my trolley, while carrying my made up rod, I almost walked past the new swim, it looked different in this afternoon light, with a high bank and much shallower than before. Tree roots formed rough steps down to a flatish shelf above the water, where I managed to locate my tacklebox and I got set up again. I emptied the remains of my liquidised bread into the bait tray and added ground pellets with fish meal to baulk out the quantity, mixing in water to allow firm balls to be formed. It was only about a foot deep half way across, but looked deeper further out and I lobbed a ball over, where I could see it on the bottom. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I moved the bottom shot to join the middle shot, giving a fifteen inch tail to the hook and cast over, whatching the float travel down unchecked. It bobbed and went under. I struck and felt a small chub, before it fell off. Cast over again. Another few bobs and a slide away. Strike and resistance. I could see a skimmer bream was hooked and I slowly drew it back to the landing net.

This was a bonus that I hadn’t expected. Punching out another 6 mm pellet of bread, I cast over again, following another ball of groundbait. The float dipped a few times, then held with the tip just visible. The breeze had got up forming a bow in the line and I made a sweeping strike, making contact, seeing a bigger skimmer flashing, as it rolled three quarters of the way out. Again I took my time, it is too easy to pull out of a bream’s soft mouth. Number two in the net.

The strong downstream wind now prevented control of the float straight out in front, as the bow in the line dragged the float in toward my bank. Casting down and across allowed the line to be mended, but the river was much shallower, the trot ending in a dense reedbed populated with more tiny chub and small perch, which attacked the drifting bread. This was a better perch taken on the bread punch.

The wind dropped again, but the skimmers had moved on, replaced by a couple of big gudgeon in the net.

Reeling back a small chub from the reedbed, there was a swirl behind it, as a pike struck. It was on, bending the little Hardy double, as it reacted to being hooked. I didn’t want to land this fish and bounced the rod in an attempt to break the 4 lb hooklink, but it swam upstream over toward the far side and sulked. Keeping up the pressure, a few short runs resulted in this long thin pike coming closer. I now realised that I might actually get this one in. It was too long for my landing net, but folded once the head and flanks were in the net. A passerby had been watching and now offered to get the pike on the bank, while I got my forceps and unhooking mat ready. The size 14 barbless hook was neatly in the scissors of the pike’s jaw and lifted out with a twist of the forceps. There was no sign of the chub.

We weighed it in the net, going only 7 lb for such a long fish, but then this could have recently spawned, it still being the official close season for pike, which ends on October 1st. Still in the landing net, it was held with it’s head upstream, until it swam off. In winter trim, with a full belly of roach, this pike will top 10 lb.

This was now my cue to finally pack up. I’d wiped out any chance of catching much more from this swim, due to the disturbance and I began packing away, despite still having groundbait left.

There seemed to be no roach in this swim, but the pike could be responsible for that. Not bad for a first visit and I wonder what the result would have been, if there had been an upstream wind.

Weeks of drought had lowered the water level drastically on the Farnborough AS stretch of the River Blackwater at Camberley this week, with the effect that all the colour had dropped out, leaving it crystal clear and very shallow, every feature of the bottom being clear from bank to bank. This had been a last minute decision to fish, it being cool for a change, but with a supply of bread in the freezer, bait is never a problem and I arrived mid afternoon for a couple of hours fishing.

There were no signs of fish, as I mixed up a small batch of groundbait, just enough to see if there was anything in the shallow water to catch, liquidised bread, ground pellets with ground hemp, damped down to form a couple of firm balls and introduced ten feet out, to wash down with the flow. I then set up my 12 foot Hardy with a 5 No 4 Ali Stem stick float in the hope that the groundbait had done it’s work and attracted something into the swim. Plumbing the depth had shown no more that two feet in the narrow channel in front of me, but first cast the float bobbed and sank immediately, the strike causing a roach to flash over, putting a bend in the rod, as the fish fought on the short line. The current runs close to this bank, due to an upstream bend and the roach was soon on it’s side, ready for the landing net.

Proving that the roach was no fluke, the following trot saw rapid bobs of the float, then a dive as I held back with a dace hooking itself, tumbling up from the bottom to rotate across the surface and swing into my hand, where the little powerhouse continued to fight.

Looking down into the river, no fish could be seen, but next cast a fish took under my rod top and rushed off. Lifting a finger from the spool of my ABU 501 allowed line to run free, before bringing a small chub to the surface and the net.

Following a pair of smaller roach, I plopped in the second small ball of feed and chased it down with the float that buried, as another decent roach took the 6 mm punch of bread on the size 14 barbless hook.

It had been two months since my last visit to the Blackwater, due mainly to the high temperatures, but I now wished that I had made the effort, as these fish were in their prime and full of fight. This roach another clonker.

I mixed up more groundbait and fed a couple of small balls, then trotting through again, the float running off downstream, as a chub chased after the feed, fighting hard when hooked, veering over to the shallows mid river, before it gave up with it’s white mouth on the surface. Good sport on light tackle.

Regular small balls of feed kept the roach coming, depite a strong downstream wind, followed by a rare sight, Rain, which penetrated the overhead trees, but did not dampen the dry ground.

The roach were getting bigger, coming from further down the swim, when a familiar swirl anounced the arrival of a pike, as it chased after a hooked roach. The roach swam back upstream to me in panic, as I reeled it hard, skimming across the surface, while the small pike followed. I swung the roach in and the pike turned away, but settled mid stream, no doubt waiting for the next offering. I decided to pack up, as I hate feeding pike, this one of about 3 lb could badly damage one of these pristine roach, or more likely chase off the shoal. It was a shame, as I still had a good hour’s groundbait left and was building a decent net of fish on the punch.

It had been a busy session, better than I had expected, as the Blackwater usually fishes well, when it has a bit of colour in the water.