Welcome to the first of my online diary entries for the new, improved Pallatrax web site. The intention is to post new entries roughly every couple of weeks, more often where there is plenty to talk about and possibly less often if the fishing is as crap as it was over the New Year period!

After the snow had vanished, I did manage a couple of fruitless sessions after the big perch of the Ouse, but my fishing was very disjointed because of illness and awaiting the birth of my youngest daughter’s first child. I didn’t want to be too far away from home as the due date approached, but in the event Jacqui was over a week late and then in labour for 118 hours. That was traumatic for the wife and I; God knows what it was like for Jacqui!

I eventually got a decent session on the Ouse in the last week of the season and, although the conditions were hardly ideal, at least there were a few bites about. The Ouse has been really tough this winter, as many rivers have, and the constantly extra cold conditions have certainly not helped. On my first day, I needed a confidence booster and that occurred only about half an hour after my first cast at midday. I was using one of my special baits, which was taken with a real lunge. Ten minutes later I was weighing a cracker of a chub of 6lb 4ozs. What a great start!

When I landed another lovely chub of 5lb 6ozs only twenty minutes later I felt that a good catch of fish might be on the cards but, strangely, I fished another 12 hours without a single indication. It was well after midnight when I headed back to the van for the night. The normally reliable dark hours had let me down badly.

Next morning was a repeat performance of the first day, with two fish in ten minutes from the same swim. They were like peas in a pod at 5lb 8ozs and 5lb 10ozs. That was a little after 10.00am and I had to wait until mid afternoon for a third bite, from an old warrior of a chub. 6lb 2ozs it weighed but it would have weighed considerably more in its prime. I was sad to see several scales missing and an ugly stab wound in its back. A cormorant, almost certainly, had caused that injury. The Ouse valley is plagued with the damn things. On that second day, I did manage at least a bite after dark, although at 3lb 12ozs the chub responsible was hardly worth the effort. Again I stuck at it until about 1.00am, expecting a leviathan at any moment, but it never happened.

On my third and last day, the river was very clear and cold after yet another frost and I struggled all day for just one bite. Another five pounder came to net, 5lb 7ozs to be exact, and an hour after dark I was packing my river gear away for another season. A glorious sunset and a hunting barn owl had provided a fitting backdrop. As I made my slow way back to the van, thoughts were on spring carp, tench and bream. Big carp would be the first target. Hopefully I’ll have some to tell you about in the next entry.