So thanks for the advice on venues lads - and in the end it was the Swale to the rescue late yesterday afternoon, as my 3 chub (average just 2-11) and Claire's 2 small pike (about 4 and about 6/7 pound judging by her photos - she didn't have scales) saved our weekend.
Conditions weren't good at Skip Bridge on Saturday - very windy - we fished 6 swims from 1 pm to 5.30 pm and blanked, though I did miss a couple of very wary chub bites. Niddn't have bothered taking the keep net.
At Boroughbridge early Sunday morning ("Ure kidding" said Claire, having a lie-in) I targeted the perch that we've had there before with big worms and small lures, but blanked in 2 free fishing pegs on the Ure and 3 on the Milby Cut (basically I fished every inch of the very little free fishing available there). Claire came along later and waggled the Cut with single caster and she caught several small dace and a tiny chublet.
Later on as it turned into a fine afternoon, we had a Swale of a time, picknicking on the West bank of the Swale at Topcliffe (make the most of it before the whirling noise machine arrives), and walked Asenby as well, just for future info, but in the end we actually chose to fish the Swaleside caravan site's private stretch below the bridge at Toppy ('cos though there's no visiting vans allowed there, if you stay at the caravan site in Boroughbridge, part of the same company, you get to fish at Toppy for free by prior arrangement). Nice pegs, though a couple of the platforms near the bridge were under water even at the current fairly normal river level. The receptionist there even gives you a catch update when you arrive: "it fished well on Friday but rubbish in that wind yesterday. Today they're catching again."
I roved a bit, fishing 2 rods on hair-rigged meat & worm, hoping for a barbel, but all I got was my krill-glugged meat getting bit off by a pike - had to be a big fish cos I had a massive jolt on the rod then immediately a clean-cut 10 pound mainline, a good fifteen inches above the hook - I didn't krill-glug anything after that! Claire trotted for anything going, but refused to step up from an 18 when she was catching only minnows, until she heard my pike story and started chucking out little shads on an 8 foot stalking rod, catching her 2 pike around 5 & 5.30 pm, by which time we'd both been in several swims and were now at opposite ends of the stretch.
One fella up from me was having a great day, catching 20 chub and one barbel on legered cheese or trotted corn between 8 a.m. and 3p.m., around 65 pounds of fish I'd estimate I saw him put back, so when he finished I asked if I could drop into his swim (who needs rivercraft when you can just nab a great peg eh?). He said I could have it when he'd done some work on it, and he proceeded to go and replace about 4 of the steps down to the peg with paving slabs and other bits of hardcore!! Turns out his elderly parents have a caravan there and he looks after the pegs, if I understood correctly, and a great job he's doing too! Luckily he did it all by hand and foot - rather than with a sledgehammer, but still I thought I'd give it another hour for the swim to recover from the building work, and I didn't drop into his peg until about 5pm.
Stupidly I didn't even start with cheese paste right away, but as soon as I did - hair-rigging it on the downstream rod in the fast flow and just moulding it on the hook for the top rod closer in the slack - the takes started to come. All on the bottom rod in the fuller flow, all on my hair-rigged cheese paste (my deadly recipe includes hemp paste). One fish lost at the net, three landed, each a bit bigger than the last, but the biggest only 3 pound - I'd seen the other fella's net of twenty fish when he put them back, and they looked to average about that. Couple of cagey bites on the non-hair-rigged rod were missed, so suddenly I'm a believed in the hair-rig for this bait!
By the way all these 3 chub and Claire's 2 pike were caught on rods I'd only just bought second hand from the Armley shop on Friday for £30 total the pair - I'd been wanting a 2 pound t/c barbel rod for heavier flow than my 1.75 avon, and for bullying fish out of close-in snags (where I lost what felt like a BIG fish, almost certainly p/b chub, maybe on the Aire t'other day), but when I saw this 2 pound through-actioned Daiwa 11-foot carp rod at least 15 -20 years old I'd guess, I thought "ideal rod for my needs". OK, they were only small chub, but from the feel of how it kept them away from the bank yesterday I'm well pleased with its barbel-out-of-difficult-swim potential. I can't imagine using something bigger than 2lb t/c for barbel.
When Claire went off with her lures 150 yards away, she literally got the wrong end of the stick about something I said about swapping landing nets, so as I was landing the first chub I looked behind me and realised I had no net handle. She must have thought I meant take a longer handle, not a bigger net! So I ended up just having to grab the big pike net by the rim, kneel down and scoop up the fish with it, all adding to the excitement!
A pint at the Angel Inn at Topcliffe was well deserved to end the day, even if it is inevitably another one of those horrible posh hotel/eateries now, rather than an honest village boozer. I always feel uncomfortable covered in mud and with a slight whiff of cheesepaste around me trousers in a place like that! Decent enough pint of IPA but we much preferred the cosy atmosphere of the Black Bull in Boroughbridge the night before.
As for my so-called 8-days-in-a-row campaign, nah, that's done me for a couple of days now, won't be fishing till at least Wednesday and gonna be happy with say just 3 more sessions to end the season!! Besides, it's Cheltenham races on the telly this week...
VIVA THE HAIR RIGGED CHEESEPASTE REVOLUTION!