Sussex Ouse Goldbridge Stretch - 10/08/09

It must be at least five years since I last fished a river and with me being a member of Haywards Heath this year I really had no excuses for not having a crack at the Ouse.

After a 20 minute car journey I arrived at Goldbridge and unpacked my gear, after a quick and cautious vault over a low barbed wire fence I was standing next to the river.

According to the guys in the tackle shop this stretch is rarely fished so it was a bit of a shock to see two other guys fishing, after a quick natter with one of the anglers who revealed himself to be the club secretary I made my way upstream to a slow bend in the river complete with overhanging tree and patches of streamer weed, a perfect haunt for the greedy Chub.

I set up my Korum Neoteric with the intention of trotting maggots and breadflake under a small chubber float and the first run through the swim rewarded me with a small Perch of about 5 ounces on double red maggot. It was literally a Perch or Roach a chuck for the first hour but nothing of any size so with that in mind I decided to take a wander upstream to the faster water.

Throughout the rest of the day I caught more Roach and Perch on maggot and also managed to induce a few savage bites on breadflake but I was unable to hit any of them because of poor line control on my part, the disadvantage of not owning a centrepin reel.