River Colne, Essex - 18th April 09

blakdog on Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:47 am

Thought I'd christen the south east section with a fishing report.

Having been ill this week I wasn't feeling up to a full blown fishing session but fancied a couple of hours in the sunshine so I decided to fish an upriver mark that I haven't fished for a few years, blowing the dust off the Bass rod and trying out a new 5500 reel in the process.

As you can see from the picture, this mark is a very shallow water one and you can only fish a couple of hours over the top of the tide so its ideal for a short session. Its well known locally for the little schoolies that swarm into the creek over the top of the tide to feed on the brown shrimp and as usual it didn't dissappoint, although probably because of the very small evening tide, the fish only really fed for about 30 minutes, just at the top of the 7pm tide.

I spent a lovely couple of hours in the sunshine and managed a couple of little schoolies to Ragworm but to be honest, even without the fish, there would have been plenty to watch as the river is alive with bird life at the moment with the stars of the show being a pair of Marsh Harriers which hunt regularly across the local salt marsh and nest nearbye most summers. You can see from the pictures that the first Bass looked a bit rough, with a wound on its back and this isn't particularly uncommon here as the fish are often targeted by Herons in the shallows or even by Seals, that sit in the main run waiting for the Bass to flood into the creek with the tide.

Anyway, nice to see a couple of Bass (albiet small) after what feels like a long winter and on the marsh it was like a summers day with Bees and Butterflies everywhere.