I'm sure the new Mrs Bigoll appreciated the delay too.Sunday 28th September was World Rivers Day: http://worldriversday.com/about/ and, having chalked up 93 catches on the Roding so far this season, the perfect day to make it into triple figures. It was unusually humid for the end of September and we've not had any proper rain for weeks so I knew the river would be low, clear and sluggish; not ideal, but a few perch could probably be tempted. The session was my ninth of the season - one of which was a blank owing to a sudden cold front and thunderstorm - and a reflection of my resolution to get out on the river more in 2014/15. What follows is a small selection of photos and notes of this season so far which will hopefully illustrate the affection I hold for my local river. Like most of its inhabitants, the Roding is small but perfectly formed, colourful and challenging.
The Roding has multiple personalities, from open and placid:
To hidden and mysterious:
And picture perfect:
All within a single mile stretch. As you'd expect, the changing character of the river offers up an array of different swims, each with their own challenges and inhabitants, both of which can change from week to week. Some scream chub:
Others beg you to give them a try:
While others invite you to take a seat and watch the watery world go by:
This season I've favoured 9 swims and christened them according to their features, such as fence-post, waterfall and mink tree. I visit them in order along my walk, stopping for a few minutes at each one to gauge conditions and see who might be swimming around, as well as to soak up the peaceful beauty of my surroundings. When it's time to start fishing, I break out my 8 foot telescopic, pre-tackled with shot and float, and bait up with a bunch of red maggots. This season the fish have followed thick and fast, though the gudgeon have been notable by their absence and minnow numbers are way down on previous years; I suspect this might have something to do with the constant flooding over the winter, rather than any water quality issue, given the presence of so many young chub and perch. I regularly see the handful of really big fish which call my stretch home but, aside from one occasion when I hooked a giant of a chub only to have it snap my 8lb line, my catches have been in the smaller category. Here are a sprinkling of my 100 to date, all of which were an absolute joy to land:
Roding chub are hard-fighting, even in their early years:
While the perch are beautifully coloured:
This season I even caught my first ever Roding roach, which was a real surprise as I'd never even seen one in the river before:
World Rivers Day ended with me landing 12 fish, comfortably taking me over the century mark. Here's my Roding season so far: 57 chub, 40 perch, 7 minnow and 1 roach. I'm hoping to catch a few more before the weather turns and the sparkling little river turns into a boiling chocolate torrent once again. Who knows - perhaps one of those wise old chub will see fit to allow me a catch as a late wedding present.....
