I fish moving water for a change - Old Nene, March

For the first time for several years I paid a trip to the Old Nene in March. Mike and I had permission to sit on one of the moorings. The water was moving nicely, but very clear, and the sun was shining with no wind.

About 4 lb in three hours. My best roach was foulhooked!

Sport was very slow - we managed only three or four fish in the first hour, on a pole with 3 elastic,  loose feeding with hemp and pinkie, and fishing mainly pinkie on the hook. I was putting in some of each via a small pole pot, and the hemp was sinking quickly, while the pinkies travelled several metres downstream, so effectively I was baiting two spots.

The fish were no more than 1 oz to start with, so I tried for half an hour with hemp on the hook, for just one 2 oz roach. But then sport got gradually better and I began to catch tiny roach and rudd - no more than half an ounce - from about eight metres downstream. the best fish was a 4 oz roach, foulhooked in the dorsal fin.I also managed half a dozen small bream, which took a single hook maggot.

The rig
The rig was a 4x12 Drennan Tuff-Eye with a black tip so I could see it against the white reflection of the sky. Shotting was a string of No 13s, and the best way of getting bites was to lay the rig out downstream and hold it back hard against the current. Bites came when the bait was perhaps eight inches off bottom and the float at half-cock. Trotting through wasn't as productive, and if I went overdepth I hooked twigs and rubbish.

I didn't miss a bite, but I did have a couple of fish drop off. It was good to fish moving water - reminded me of when I used to fish the Trent in the 1960s and 1970s.

We packed up after three hours
Mike was catching fewer fish, using a whip, but they were bigger than mine. Then the wind started to blow cold and spots of rain fell, and we packed up after three hours. Mike had about 20 fish for 2 lb and I had around 50 for almost 4 lb (estimated weights). He said it was the worst catch he'd had this year, and he's fished it several times, taking roach to almost 1 lb only a few days earlier.

Mike had about 20 fish - blame the crap
photographer for the fact that you can't
see most of them.

I have problems 
Worst time for me was taking my gear the few yards up the bank. My hormone treatment has definitely weakened me and I felt really groggy by the time I'd got it to the top, despite the fact that there were steps and a handrail.

After resting for a few minutes  I realised I needed to go to the toilet. Thankfully the lovely lady who owned the mooring let me use hers and I felt much better afterwards. Even so It must have taken almost 45 minutes in all for me to get my gear up to my trolley, run it 100 yards to my van, and load it in.

I was OK by the time I arrived home, but I will have to think very seriously about going to a venue in future where there are no toilet facilities. The banks here along the river were absolutely sodden and you could see that some of the normal spots used by anglers had almost fallen into the water. It's not as easy as you might have gathered from newspaper reports.