MAIN SPECIES

A picture of health

Regardless of what you fancy getting your teeth into, there will be a swim that ticks all the boxes.

There are steady glides that lend themselves to running a stick float through for chub, areas with dense cover tight to the far bank that scream for a feeder to be chucked in search of barbel and others where it’ll be a bite- every- chuck from small silvers on the whip.

Sturdy platforms are on offer in some areas although wading out on to the shallow gravel bars is favoured by many, including Matt.

The dense foliage that separates the track from the river itself has been cleared out to create pegs, with accessible paths for passage between the two. Signs are also in place to clearly display the peg numbers.

For our feature Matt had selected peg 98, just upstream of the A456 road bridge, which offered a host of options. As we waded out around 15m to a spot where the water barely reached his knees, it soon become apparent just how alive the river was.

Tiny fish that looked like a mixture of minnows and gudgeon were crowded close to our feet, showing little fear as we carefully stepped through the shallow water.

“It’s like this in every peg and although it’s only little fish that we can see, there’s stacks of bigger ones lurking out of sight,” he assured me.

With his box positioned the gravel, we could see the riverbed 10m out but between us and that plateau, the bottom was invisible, indicating much deeper water.

“This trough is 4ft- 5ft deep at the moment and it always holds lots of fish.

“The plan is to fish an 8m whip, running the float through in the current to try and keep bites coming.

“If the fish go further down the swim and I’m unable to reach them with the whip, I’ll switch to rod and line with a stick float,” he said.

“Why would I want to fish for carp around a man- made pool when I can soak up this atmosphere every week?”