Newark Dyke, 18-11-2006

Not having any matches on this week, my fishing partner Roger and I decided to do something different for a change. Hopefully we will start to fish rivers more frequently next year so what better time to start.
After making some enquiries we decided on the Hudsons Bay stretch of the Newark Dyke, which had been fishing quite well by all accounts. Neither of us relish sitting all day on the feeder so hearing that the stretch had been feeding well on waggler and stick left us raring to go.

Hopefully the frost on Friday night would not make matters take a turn for the worst, and after a good hearty venue we made the short journey down the A1 to the stretch. Arriving in the car park around 10 am, we were greeted by, well no one. Not one person on the whole stretch, which is in stark contrast to days gone by when we’d have been lucky to get a peg turning up at that time.
A quick hop over the style and we settled on pegs 71 & 72, with me taking the latter.

The sun was out and making it feel rather warm, although there was a stiff breeze, blowing slightly over our backs and downstream. We both intended to fish the stick and maybe waggler if the mood took us. I had some maggots and a bit of hemp, with Roger opting for caster and hemp.

The rig consisted of a 7 x no. 4 domed alloy stick set with a bulk of no. 6 shot and a few 10′s as droppers. After a few runs without any bait to gauge the depth, I noticed there was a patch of weed about 3 rod lengths down which stretched a good couple of rod lengths into the river. I was later to find out by a local that there was a good patch of lilies there during the warmer months.
Luckily my feed was ending up further downstream and I was catching towards the end of the swim.

Bites started to come after about 20 minutes with a small perch the first to come to the net, followed by a few small bits over the next hour or so. After a coffee break and a warming of the toes it was back to action and a few puts ins later the float dipped and the rod tip arced on the strike. I was hoping I hadn’t hooked the bottom and a seconds later the the fish slowly started moving out into the river. After a few minutes a pristine chub about two and a half pound was in the net.

By around 2pm bites had dried up and the wind was starting to get blustery so we decided to call it a day. Roger had built up a nice net of roach on hemp and caster on the next peg, all in perfect condition.

What a refreshing change the day had made from fishing the usual puddles, and we made an executive decision to get out on rivers more over the winter and continue through next year.
If you fancy a change, I would recommend a day out a Hudson Bays. They’ve even put in huge bolder steps at the pegs to make getting down into the river easier.