First PB of the year

 With a light dusting of snow this morning and the Colne at normal level for once the day was set for some nice grayling sport. Things soon took a downer though when I realised I had left home without my waders. With JD on the map and me driving we set off in search of some new spots to fish only to find I was stuffed without my boots. We drove around for a while before settling on a stretch of the lower river we tried to fish last time and got caught out by rising snow melt.

 I made a slight miss judgement when tackling up and soon found the water in the pool too deep for my grayling bobber float, and a little too slow for the pin and the faster water just too far out of easy casting range. Off it all came and on went a 3 gram Avon float coupled with a closed face reel, third or fourth trot and the float sailed away. Not the intended grayling but a nice brown trout well over a pound, I slipped it back before realising what I had done. Having not fished many upland rivers that fish would have been almost double my PB and I was slightly gutted that, even though not huge I had popped it back without so much as a trophy shot.

 We made our way upstream dropping into a few pools on the way and soon realised the fish were playing hard to get. JD was well ahead of me by now and by the time I caught up with him he was fishing a large, slow deep bend in the river. I remembered from our last trip here that just above this there is a nice deep but not too slow run along the far bank so I headed for there. I got the depth sorted and decided on a spot of tea whilst I fed some maggots. Just as I started to fish JD arrived still fish less and decided to watch me trot along the far bank. Whilst I don't see my self as some kind of expert I gave JD a few pointers on trotting as he admits him self that he is a complete novice at it. I think he was impressed with my skills as I worked the float along the far bank anyway.

 Right on cue mid sentence the float dipped under and I struck into something solid, I though it was the bottom at first as it just held solid before starting to move slowly upstream. It was clearly a good fish and went on a few slow powerful runs, I got it close in and was still no wiser to what I was attached to. It wasn't until it finally rolled in the net that I realised it was the biggest wild trout I had ever seen. Out of season I know but I was well happy with this beast, on the scales it went 3lb 2oz.

 I hooked another, smaller fish soon after that shed the hook whilst doing airborne acrobatics. This must have spooked any remaining fish in the swim as it went stone dead, with JD still fish less we decided on a move to the Calder for the afternoon just a short distance away where another friend of ours was already fishing.

 We arrived to find Rich sat feeder fishing bread for the chub only for him to tell us he had not landed a fish but missed loads of bites, at least they were feeding. JD got into one of his known chub swims a little upstream and I decided to trot between them. I had no choice anyway as I had only brought float gear with me. After JD's cracking session yesterday when he landed 9 good chub in just a few hours on a different stretch he drew a big fat blank today, I didn't fair much better and just couldn't get it together this afternoon. Snagged hooks, tangled rigs and an awkward flow saw me packing up after not too long, Rich on the other hand showed us how to do it finally landing 5 good chub to just over 4lb.