Another Sea-trout and a blank.......................

Early Friday morning I left home and travelled down to the Frome for the first time with my heart set on a roach.

Traffic is always light at that time of morning and I made very good time to the local tackle shop and a hot coffee and a long chat with the proprietor.  He told me all about where and how and filled my head with stories of giant roach that can be caught not too far from where I was stood, he had pictures to back him up and they where fantastic pictures.

Armed with a couple of pints of maggots and a trotting rod I headed for “the spot”, the spot that holds monsters. Eagerly I set up my trotting outfit and got on with the business of catching a large roach casting in as soon as I was ready. After a couple of casts I was becoming a little perplexed, I could not find any flow, there is lots of water in front of me, it is fairly deep but the float just sat there as it would on a still water, how odd! After a couple of polite conversations with passers bye they politely pointed out that as the tide was coming in and the river flow was going in the opposite direction then you had in effect two flows in opposite directions ergo no real flow…………….. So simple when you understand what is happening!

I was again using the ‘pin and I was getting frustrated because I could not cast out far enough, I should have taken along a fixed spool reel to allow me some more distance, I will next time. I fished most of the day without a bite, my float hardly moved until the tide turned and I managed to get a decent trot through but the fish where not in the mood. A small Sea-trout however did decide to make my day by taking my bait and behaving itself all the way to the net.

A forum friend stopped by to say hello and it was very nice to meet him and put a face to the name, as indeed it was the same with the proprietor of the tackle shop, I have spoken to him via private message on a forum and he has always been very helpful. Bizarrely he travels up to fish only a couple of miles away from where I live, it’s a small world.

Last night I fished with my younger brother, I am trying to convert him from the “dark side”. He is a mad carp fisherman and a very capable one at that but I think he is beginning to show more than a passing interest in barbel fishing. We fished my local river last night in less than ideal condition, the day started off warmly enough but once the cloud cover dispersed it became very cold very quickly and his little dog Alfie really began to feel the cold. We fished until around ten o’clock, I had a decent bite around nine o’clock but I missed it, cold hands tucked into my pockets are not conducive to hitting quick bites. That was the only action either of us had during the session.

Back at the car the temperature was minus one but there was another mad man on the river…………………… I wonder if he caught anything?

Back to work tomorrow after a few days off, a pike and a Sea-trout, not a bad haul but I would dearly have loved a roach from the Frome, maybe next time.