Last month I fished a group match on the Dorset Stour just outside Sturminster Newton, even though the weather on the run up to the match had done its best to try and prevent it from happening around 30 anglers turned up to a very colored and fast flowing Stour.
I managed to draw the golden peg and all I was told at the draw was that it was on Bream bend!!! Well if that was the case I thought then I was in with a chance of a couple as the water would have been sock on, alas I was the peg downstream of the bend just as the river narrowed again, typical.
To be fair it wasn't all bad as There was a bit of slack towards the far side and some nice looking trees downstrream of the swim so I did fancy it down there for the possibility of a chub or 2 but only time would tell.
I mixed my groundbait and then started to plumb up, I had a bit of a shock as it was about 6 feet deep at 13m and nearly 14ft at 12m!! The flow on the long line was also problematic as it was still quite quick and I was being forced into setting up a 2g rig as my light rig, a 4g rig as a slowing rig and I also set up a 4g flat float if I needed to hold the bait still. This was not ideal but if I came any shorter then I was not really able to fish a pole rig as the flow was to fast. I also set up a waggler to cast down the swim in the vain hope that I might be able to get a few fish from under the trees on wag and mag and that was me all set up.
I finished prepping my bait and was actually ready for the all in, I had spoken to a couple of friends on the run up to this match and they both recommended cupping a few balls of bait in, but I knew better and decided to bosh in 6 baby's heads and then cup in 4 smaller feed rich balls over the top.
Straight after feeding I shipped out with the 2g rig baited with a red maggot confident of a quick bite, however, after an hour and with nothing to show I decided to pick up the waggler rod. I had been trickling a few maggots down the swim towards the overhanging trees and much to my relief on the 2nd or 3rd run down the float went under withe a small bomber chub.... I hadn't blanked. I managed to get a few bites by changing the depth, hookbait and exploring across and down the swim but I never felt like there were any big fish in the swim. took the decision around mid match to quickly sert up a maggot feeder and cast it down next to the branches.
I set it up with a 0.20mm flouro hooklength and a size 14 carbon feeder hook and 2nd cast I hooked a decent fish, I hadn't seen the bite. I cranked it quite hard as I was only too aware that there were old weedbeds in the flow and overhanging branches on my bank down stream, I got it to under the rod top and just as I was trying to get its head up it bit me off!
I am still not sure what had happened but I swapped to a 0.17mm mono hooklength straight after to to stop it from happening again.
It was coming into the last couple of hours now and by alternating between the feeder and the waggler i was still picking up the odd fish but they were all small. Bri on the bream hole had had a skimmer and a few bits above me and I had been watching Mike down from me netting a few bonus fish from his short line so I was never really in the chase. Anyway the all out was called and I ended up with 825g of small fish, this was just enough for third in the section as the river temperature had dropped dramatically with the infux of rain recently. Bri had 1.3Kg and mike had 4.65Kg so I had been well and truly 'Harried'.
Still it was an enjoyable day in the sun and I cannot wait until the next time I can get onto the flowing water.
What would I do differently?
I would not have balled it in at the start and I should have set up a bolo for the middle of the river as my groundbait was getting washed down by the flow, I also think that a stick down the near margin may have been worth a few bonus fish.
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