Arrival time: 08.45
Weather: Dry after a wet night with a strong freshening breeze.
Tackle: Hardy 11' 6" Specimen Avon, Shimano Exage 4000RC, link leger, 8lb line, 10 hook
Baits: Spam, bread paste.
Fish: Blank

After days of rain I was keen to get fishing but was weighing up whether to go to the local lake at Fields End or the river at Offord. The Fields End lake is very exposed to the wind so in the end I opted for the river. I wasn't greatly surprised to find the level up with a forceful flow through the mill stream.

I made my way to the head of the stream as I thought that there might be a chance of slacker water near the edge where I normally fish. The rest of the stream offered no real opportunities as it is basically a straight channel with no features to moderate the flow. Where I normally sit at head of the stream was under water.

I tried dropping a piece of spam in a couple of runs near the bank where reeds were slightly interrupting the flow but this didn't yield anything. On reflection, I should have perhaps tried placing the bait in the area were I normally sit since, although being probably less than a foot deep, it was the only truly slack water along the entire stream.

With the mill stream clearly being almost unfishable I moved up to what is called the New Cut, a canal like channel that was unaffected by the increased flow in the main river. This channel runs into the main weir pool so my thoughts were that perhaps fish from the pool would be taking refuge there. However, neither my bread paste nor spam generated any interest. Perhaps some maggots or worms on lighter tackle would have tempted roach or perch.

My final ploy was to go to the lock cutting which was, of course, not affected by the flow. A chap was float fishing by the bridge. As he said, the lock cutting was really the only practicable place to fish in the conditions.

I first tried adjacent to the mooring where the boats wait up for the lock. Again, I think float fishing worms or maggots would have given me a better chance than my chub baits. I didn't get a touch.

As a final try I moved to the end of the lock cutting where the main flow joined the slacker water. Fishing the crease between the main flow and the slack seemed a good approach but once again yielded nothing. With rain clouds gathering at around midday I decided to call it a day.