In my youth our club mainly fished the Thames but occasionally there was a trip to the 'Ouse & Cam' territory, which unlike the Thames required a river board licence. My memories are of a beautiful looking river but of not catching much, although there were troublesome eels.

With my now mature experience and newfound confidence I thought that I might catch something worthy. But I didn't. The bottom was covered with what I've always termed 'cabbages', a bit like deep lily pads that are struggling to surface. I've no doubt that if one can find a clearing among these plants it would be a killer place to fish, but even with polaroids I couldn't.

I tried casting out further hoping that the bottom might be less covered and to be fair I didn't snag up too much so perhaps it was. But even so I didn't get a touch. I then tried a spell of float fishing over the margin cabbages but this also yielded nothing.

Reverting to the leger I thought I had a touch so next cast set up a bobbin indicator to give more sensitive indication. But despite one slow 'rise' that was probably due to debris in the current I didn't get any indication at all.

By about 11.00 I had already half-decided to call it a day. Boat traffic had increased as had walkers with curious dogs. I gave it another half an hour while feeding small roach in the margin with bread paste. I thought there might be chance of some bigger ones emerging from the cabbages but no such luck. So I packed up at 11.30.

There are obviously techniques for rivers like the Ouse, probably more akin to match fishing than seeking out occasional larger fish. Perhaps a box of maggots might have been a better starting point. Or perhaps wait until the cabbages have died off and washed away later in the year.