Having had to cut short my trips to the Nene backwaters last year because of my back problem, this was my first trip this season. The banks were much more overgrown than on my trip last July, indicating perhaps that fewer people had fished there before me. I should have read my report from last July since on that occasion the better fish were taken on spam, a bait I didn't take this time.

I started at a spot I hadn't fished previously. The stretch is usually fished from the bank on the far side of the footbridge, the nearside being largley overgrown. However, there is a swim on the nearside by the bridge that I spotted last year but only after I had packed up. So I started there.

The water on this side has a fast flow but casting downstream there is an eddy, and I aimed to get the bread flake on the edge of the faster water. My first fish, which hammered the quiver tip to the extent that I felt it in the rod butt, turned out to be a small chub, hooked just in the edge of the lip. Another even smaller - minuscule - chub followed.

More taps followed but nothing as positive as that first bite. I eventually hooked a small roach, the size 6 hook being almost too big for its mouth. Quite amazing.

I then moved to the opposite bank where the water eddies and the flow is far more moderate. Despite a few taps I didn't get anything, although last year I did take a chub from this swim.

Deciding on another move I headed for the swim where I caught my best chub last July. Things had changed a bit in that the spot where I had fished from before was heavily overgrown, but another spot had been cleared that in fact gave better access to an area under trees where I had cast to the previous year.

After a couple of casts a pull resulted in a hooked fish. But disaster nearly struck as my reel became entangled in bindweed. Fortunately despite allowing the line to slacken the fish stayed on and turning the reel eventually cleared the bindweed. A nice chub was the result, not large but in beautiful condition.

Not expecting another fish from the swim I moved a short way upstream. After my first cast in this next swim I found that the hook had gone when I reeled in. I think that I must have squashed the monofil against the hook eye when using the forceps on the chub. It was fortunate that I didn't get a bite on that first cast. In fact I didn't get anything in that swim, and nor did I in the following couple of spots.

I then arrived at a swim that had been quite extensibly cleared of vegetation, probably more than necessary. It was in that sense easier to fish, although a small overhanging tree was a bit of a problem. The flow was very fast but there was a slacker area nearer the bank that I hoped my bread flake would roll into. There was also a lot of streamer, this being the case throughout the stretch.

After a couple of casts I was into a small chub. Small it might have been but in the fast flow it gave good account of itself and when it came to netting, the reeds in front of me and the tree above made life very difficult. But I eventually managed to get it in the net. It was much smaller than the previous fish but once again in superb condition.

At this point I deliberated about walking up to the next meadow, but I was already feeling a bit exhausted in the warm, muggy conditions, and it was a bit of a walk to what I remebered as the next fishable spot. So I decided to return to the swim where I had caught the better chub, and then on to the spot by the bridge where I had started the session.

For brevity I will just say that neither spot yielded anything, so at around 1:30pm I decided to call it a day. I had intended to pack up around 2:00pm, my sessions these days tending to be around five hours.