Back again to the Welland. There were actually a couple of anglers on the stretch today. One was pole-fishing the far bank not far from the town while the other seemed to be roving. I made my way to the large pool, which was free.

I started with cheese but had brought some lobworms to see if I could tempt a large perch. There were a few sharp taps on the cheese but nothing that characterised a chub. I persevered but the lull was only broken when a jack pike of 1½lbs took the cheese as I was retrieving. Fortunately it was lip-hooked and soon returned.

Fortunately it was lip-hooked and soon returned. After a bit longer with the cheese I changed to worm. This produced more ‘bites’ but other than one lost fish (probably a smallish perch) and another even smaller jack pike that took the worm on the retrieve, there was nothing doing.

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The lack of fish was mitigated to some extent by sightings of a kingfisher and what I’m sure was a Red Kite that was unusually flying quite low over the trees on the far bank. A woman with a young dog, to whom I had spoken last time, stopped and while we were talking the dog tried to eat the bread off the hook that was laying on the bank. Between us we had to perform a hook extraction. Fortunately the dog didn’t seem to suffer and the woman was very understanding about the whole episode.

Cheesed off (excuse pun) with the lack of activity, around 17.00 I decide to roam the bank with lobworm hook bait to see if I could tempt one of the supposedly large perch that frequent the river. I tried a number of ‘perchy’ spots but only got snatchy bites that I couldn’t hit, with the worm being taken off the hook on a number of occasions.

By now I was quite cold having not dressed for the chilly wind. I decided to return to the large pool and fish until 18.50, the intention being to get home by 20.00. Back at the pool I reverted to cheese and decided to play the waiting game. My premise was that if there were chub in the swim and they were feeding, the bait would eventually be found and picked up.

At 18.10 the rod tip pulled round positively but the movement was much less than I would normally expect from a chub. After a split second of hesitation I tightened and a fish was on. It was clearly a chub and characteristically powered down into the bottom weeds. After dragging it out a couple of times I netted a fish of 3½lbs. It wasn’t in prime condition having lesions around the anal fin and looking a bit out of sorts generally. It was weighed and returned.

With my ‘pack up’ time decided I had a couple of more casts and was actually on my last piece of the M&S cheddar, when at 18.45, five minutes from the self-imposed deadline, another firm but limited pull on the tip connected me to what felt like a better fish. It ran upstream towards a patch of lily pads, keeping deep, but by walking along the bank I was able to apply side pressure and turned the fish. It then made a number of deep lunges into bottom weed before I eventually was able to bring it to the net. A good looking 4½lb chub that was long and lean but in first class condition. I fine end to what earlier had been a somewhat disappointing day.

The only sadness was that I suspect the chub would have carried on feeding into the dusk if I had stayed, but dinner called.