Trip #142 – Early Morning Power Hour

There are two things you should know about my ‘early morning power hour’ on the river:

1. I love fishing, and,
2. I bloody hate cows.

This particular early morning adventure, a quick burst of angling before the shops opened, was meant to be a serene return to the banks of the River Yeo after the close season. Instead, it became a memorable (and nearly messy) tale of bovine confrontation.

I planned on surface fishing the YSAA section at Ilchester, and when I got to the car park shortly after sunrise I walked towards the river with the sense of excitement that only river fishing can give you. On approaching the gate into the field however I encountered an issue, cows. I said to myself “I bloody hate cows”… still I have fished with cows near before so, into the field I strode. The river looked amazing, and I disturbed 2 white egrets on my approach. I crept down the steep, dusty riverbank. I spent some time surveying the river, walking back and forth, deciding on my plan of attack, especially excited after I noticed some chub moving in and out of the weeds flowing on the far side of the river.

My setup would be as follows,

• 1 x 3-21g spinning rod, 10lb braid, 6lb fluorocarbon leader to a 3g Salmo “Lil’bug” surface lure.

Just before I made my first cast, I heard some movement behind me, those ninja cows had approached in silence and now I was being watched by at least 20 bullocks. Again, I repeated “I bloody hate cows”. As I go to make my first cast, I hear some rather frantic “moo-ing” from behind me.

One of the bullocks had decided this was the opportunity to “hump” one of his fellow herd. Normally this would be quite comical, but as the cows were at the top of a steep dusty banking the process of this act forced the cow to slip down the banking towards me and the river. Naturally I turned the air blue in surprise, as this massive, stupid oaf of an animal slipped towards me and inevitably the river. Fortunately, it managed to find its hoofing, avoid being humped and course correct before falling onto me and into the river.

With that I re-connected my lure to the rod, picked up my rucksack and net and proceeded to push and prod my way out of the fields, poking these huge dummies out of the way as is navigated towards the entrance gate. As I stepped back through the gate and walked up over the stops, and a lady in a nearby garden said, “no luck…?” to which I replied “Nearly got squashed by a cow!”… She replied “I saw” and chuckled back into the house, with her morning brew.

Frustrated, and frankly relieved I hadn’t taken an unplanned dunk in the river, I quickly packed up. Ilchester was clearly not my destiny today. I needed a cow-free zone, and fast, so I set my sights on the Long Load section of the River Yeo.

I arrived at Long Load to find a field free of cows, obviously I was over the moon at this, quickly unpacked the car and walked the short distance to the river. …The brush at this time of the year is heavy on the river, so if you’re planning a session, take something capable of cutting out a peg; otherwise, you’ll be stung, pricked, and scratched by the thick vegetation leading down to the water. (A quick note on accessibility: Be prepared to climb over gates and navigate farmer’s kissing gates to reach the river.) Looking at the river although clear, it looked darker than I was expecting, still I cast out my lure and the waiting game began.

As time was short, I only gave it half a dozen casts in any particular area before moving 10 to 15 yards up the bank, and after 45 minutes with no follows, no rises and no indications at all, it was clear to me that surface feeding wasn’t an option today. With that being the case, I switched to a free-lined lob worm and headed back towards the weir. It wasn’t long before I felt an indication through the braid, and I was in to a small chublet. The same technique produced a tiny Trout 10 metres down the bank, that shook so violently on being lifted out of the river it unhooked itself and returned to it’s watery habitat with a “plop”.

With 10 minutes fishing time remaining I dropped a lob worm into the Weir pool, not knowing what I might encounter, immediately I felt a small tap and again I was into another chublet who had inhaled the lob worm on the size 6 hook. I quickly disgorged the fish and dropped him back into the river before my time was up.

An enjoyable way to spend a few hours albeit without the cows, and I hope to do many more “power hour sessions” either before work, after work or early morning on the weekends.

For a rating I would say:

Fishability: *** – as you can see from the pictures it looks fishy and there were small fish moving but I didn’t see any bigger fish but that just may have been down to the conditions on the day.

Value for money: **** Free!!! (as a YSAA member)

Disabled access: I can’t give this a rating, you literally have to climb over gates and go through farmer’s kissing gates to access the river