06/03/2015 - Nuisance species - love 'em!

Fancied a perch to go with those pike, so late afternoon I headed out to the Derwent. Figured I'd have about an hour and a half by the time I got there and was set up - plenty of time to catch a stripey if I chose the right spot. There was nobody in the car park when I arrived, so I quickly headed off downstream. Unfortunately the wind was blowing straight into my first choice swim. I probably could have coped with it, but quite a fierce and unpredictable back eddy flowing under the tree I'd intended to fish up to was the clincher. I just didn't feel confident looking at the swim, so yomped back upstream past the car park and on to another area I had fancied, paying homage to one of the local idols as I did so (strange people in Draycott!).

What the...?

Settled in the new spot, putting out a mixture of chopped worms and dead maggots off the end of a bush before dropping two, link-legered dendra's on a size 6 over the top. As it started to get dark an hour later I'd only had one cursory twitch and it looked like a blank was on the cards. However, the quiver tip finally jerked to life and I struck into a heavy weight. Some head-banging early on lead me to believe I'd hooked my target species. However, this soon gave way to sullen resistance and the glimpse of a brassy scaled flank as the fish rolled on the surface confirmed its identity. It wasn't until I lifted the net that I realised that it was a flippin' good fish, broad-shouldered and pigeon-chested, going 5lb 5oz on the scales.

Corker!

Had to happy with that - my first 5lb chub for quite a while and definitely not bad for a "nuisance species".