A Session of two halves

As I finished setting up the sun rose above the trees beautifully illuminating the far bank. An overnight frost meant it was still chilly but a decent day weather wise was in prospect.
The venue was Coppice pool and the target big Perch. Two rods were baited, one was to be a sleeper rod, half a lobworm coupled with chopped worm in a feeder cast over towards the island, the other float fished Prawn.
The first indications came from the worm and after a lot of unhittable twitches I struck into a fish, not the target but a decent Roach close to a pound. Following that there was nothing, not a sniff. The worm remained untouched, the same as the Prawn. I swapped about a bit, even trying maggot but strangely even they remained untouched. By 1pm the sun was blazing high, not ideal for Perch fishing and I had had enough. Time for a change of plan.

The Avon has been full of snow all week and although it is dropping I did not fancy the colour of it so stayed away. In the next village to home there is a tributary of the Avon, an overgrown diminutive brook that is full of surprises so I decided to venture there.

In the summer this waterway is almost inaccessible due to the vegetation and human sized nettles but with it being Winter and the recent floods almost all the bank is fishable. I found a lovely glide that ran under some trees and around the bend and fed some maggots while setting up. Initially I had planned to trot for Grayling this weekend but the Wye is washed out so this would do nicely as an alternative. Second run through and it was fish on. A plucky battle ensued until I landed a nice wild Brown Trout, out of season so quick photo taken and carefully released.

This disrupted the swim and no further bites were had for about half an hour but eventually I landed my real target, a Dace. After that they came thick and fast and they were almost peas in a pod. I  lost count of how many I caught but it was well over 30, none weighing less than 3oz and none more than 6oz. I really enjoyed myself and every time I hooked one I thought it was going to be a biggie(8oz).

Stunning little fish and a few of them had obviously been pigging out recently, good bellies on them.

As the light started to fade I had four more out of season Brownies and decided to call it a day. I really enjoyed the afternoon's fishing and cannot wait to target the stretch with a fly rod in the summer