The river had been up and down... mostly up, and conditions weren't really right for anything other than barbel, that and the coldest winter we've had for a while kept me indoors for pretty much all of the winter. As the last days approached I headed out with a couple of pints of maggots and the trotting gear... Initially to find out if there were any decent roach along the ferry field. I spent 20 or so minutes trotting through each peg, working downstream. There are some nice runs, and some big eddys which made for interesting trotting. I was halfway up the section before i had my only bite... The float buried and i was connected to a fish significantly bigger than any roach. The size 16 stayed in for only 15 seconds or so, long enough for a flash of a brassy flank to leave me guessing at a decent chub after the rod pinged back and the fish was off.
With no further bites from the remaining pegs I hopped back into the car and headed over to Fairham Brook. I roamed a couple of miles upstream of Ruddington, running the float through every likely looking run, of which there are few. The poor light didn't help with fish spotting and, eventually the float dithered and after a series dithers that failed to connect my suspicions of minnow were confirmed by hooking a couple. I soon moved on, pushing well up into the fields on the edge of town but there is little cover here, and the clear shallow water would be far from inviting for daytime feeding.
My overdue return to the water was far from eventful.
