Mersey River Impossible to Spin Today 27/2/2013
After 32mm of rain in the Sheffield area yesterday I thought the Mersey River was worth a go this morning in humid and foggy conditions. Headed over to Weegena to have a fish upstream from the bridge. When I arrived there the river was like a mill pond as there was not a bit of wind about, and it looked perfect too. Looking upstream and downstream from the bridge I noticed the river had risen by a couple of inches plus there was not a sign of a fish on the rise either. This was a good sign for me as I thought it's going to be a top day for the spinner. I was wrong, as it was to be the opposite. Once in the water that was crystal clear and had a nice flow to it, and then after my first cast and retrieve the anti kink and the # 00 Black Aglia were fouled by the dreaded green cotton like algae that has been in the majority of the Mersey of late.
It was then I noticed that the river was full of it as this algae was starting to break up and there was just so much of it on the drift that in my first ten casts and retrieves the spinner kept fouling up. There were all shapes and sizes off it breaking up and coming downstream. Fished on for another hundred meters and decided that this was not going to change, so it was time to call it a day here. I did managed to have a few follows but with the spinner becoming fouled the fish then turned and moved off.
I then called into the Minnow River on the way home and saw that it had risen by some four inches (100mm) and thought I may as well have a spin in it seeing I was already here. The water was like black coffee so it was on with a # 00 Gold Black Fury. Worked my way upstream and was expecting to catch any thing as this little river has struggled to survive through the summer due to the lack of back up rains. I did manage to have two hits and catch and release one solid little brown that would have gone around 250 gms. Only fished a couple hundred meters of the river as I had my longer rod with me
Which wasn't suited to the tight areas to fish. So it wasn't the day that I thought it was going to be at all but it was still a nice couple of hours to be out and about on a river. Like I always say, there's always tomorrow isn't there ??
Cheers, Adrian.