After last weeks near two pounder, several pound plus specimens have come my way on the canal. Last night however I caught a couple of beauties on a different venue, the upper Trent at Handsacre. This is BAA water and I visited it a few times last Winter after buying the Ticket, but found it rather dour even on a mild day with the river in good trim. I arrived around 4.30pm and walked up and down the stretch which starts off shallow and pacy, deepening and slowing over the few hundred yards of its length. I was really hoping for a Chub and chose a midway swim with current down the middle and a nice eddy inside with a willow below. I fed some mash and broken prawns just beyond the 'crease' and set up a straight leger with size 8 hook. An hour in with no signs I became restless and decided to rove around a bit. Two pitches down the current was a little steadier but still with a nice eddy close in. I had a float rod set up in the car so I decided to settle in here and do some trotting. It was around seven foot deep on the 'crease' and a Thames slider bulk shotted went through nicely . One cast, a little shorter, wandered into the eddy and stalled a while. Suddenly the float buried and a near pound Roach jagged about for a minute or so before coming to the net. All quiet for a while then as the light began to fade some nice fish began topping all over the river. Soon there came some really impressive rises, Chub I thought? I cast the leger tackle out in mid river with a big lump of flake then kept the float gear inside the eddy. A good move as it turned out as the float dived again to the pull of a bigger Roach, probably pound and a half.
Three or four casts in, the leger rod bounced then pulled over and I struck into a hefty resistance. Here's my Chub I thought. The resistance slackened too easily though and in came a six pound Bream. I put the float rod away and had a few more casts with the leger but no more bites despite more hefty rises occurring . I'll be back there soon with a view to trotting heavy float tackle down the middle, Wye style!
