Work commitments and then illness had lead to more than a week away from the bank while flooding had prevented me from visiting the River Dane for much longer. My destination for the day, a small swim nestled amongst the trees, I had actually ear marked several weeks ago before the floods so was excited to finally have the opportunity to try it out.

My original plan, to fish for Tench, was pretty much ruined before a line had been cast. The water was still around 12 to 18 inches higher than when I had found the swim and the water was moving through a little quick. I chose a feeder to the middle in search of some nice Dane Bream with the float hard bottom close in.

Encouragingly the feeder, baited with worm, went out before I had finished tackling my float rod, the result a small Perch. Alas, what was unknown to me at the time was that it would be a couple of hours until the next bite on this rod and that would result only in a Roach of around 4oz, a fish that would be the last of the day on the feeder.

As is quite normal for the Dane, it was the float that produced the best results and although the rig was running through reasonably sharp, there were plenty of bites. The biggest problem for the day was finding a better stamp of fish, at least half of a final catch of 123 fish was made up of Bleak with the best fish (Roach and Rudd) coming in at just 8oz.

A little unusual, I also managed to catch a snail!

A meadow on the opposite bank attracted a number of Eagles and Herons, a beautiful site and with the sun beating down and the skies a beautiful shade of blue this was a happy if not entirely successful return to the bank side.