After my depressing comments about the last trip to Fields End (24 June) I grabbed the opportunity today to visit the River Welland. Helen had her car in for service at Peterborough so we arranged to ‘picnic’ by the river while the car was being attended to.

The river was low and clear, not ideal conditions. Also, as I walked along to my intended swim I didn’t see any chub, which is unusual in summer. It seemed that it might be a difficult day.

I tried fishing the tail end of the pool, where I had previously been successful. After about 20 minutes I realised that this wasn’t working, so I tried casting directly across the river to the far bank. Helen had gone into town to pick up the picnic food and soon after she left (12.15) a positive bite on luncheon meat produced a nice looking chub of 2lb 3oz.

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I had also taken a couple of sticks of cheddar cheese from the fridge, so I thought I would give this a try. After a couple of unproductive casts, I cast out again and tightened the line, but my attention was distracted by a couple of swans. I suddenly felt the rod move and looked to see it arcing round from a violent take. Despite having the rod loosely in my hand I somehow missed the bite. A fish had obviously taken the bait almost as soon as it hit bottom.

Soon after Helen returned we had our picnic lunch, after which I went up to the bridge pool as this often produces a fish. Unfortunately the low water level and reduced flow rate had resulted in significantly more weed growth and I didn’t have any luck.

Back at the large pool, which had now had a rest, I tried another piece of cheese and had another good bite. Not as violent as the last one, but a good firm pull. However, I missed it! Another less positive pull was also missed. At this point I suspected that the way I was hooking the cheese was masking the hook on the strike. I tried just pushing the hook into the cheese, on the principle it would pull out easier. The next bite on cheese possibly justified this approach as I hooked the fish, albeit right at the edge of the lip, a nice 3lb 13oz chub that fought well, making a number of attempts to bury itself in reeds. It was now 15.10 and I had to pack up at 16.00.

After a couple of more casts with cheese I ran out, so reverted to luncheon meat. At 15.50 a good cast that landed very close to the far bank produced a firm pull and I was into another fish. Again it fought well, although when banked it was not in quite as good condition as the previous two fish. Coincidently, it also weighed 3lb 13oz.

So, with perfect timing I landed my third fish just before packing up time.

I really enjoyed today. It was peaceful, the only other people around being the occasional dog walker. It was challenging and reminded me of my younger days when I fished rivers almost exclusively, never knowing what, if anything, I would catch. I took the absolute minimum of tackle, just a rod, landing net, stool and one small bag with essentials. I even sat out a short shower without a brolly.