Coarse
Family commitments and illness have kept me from the bank for two weeks so I was more than happy to accept an invitation from Marius for a morning session on the Akmena River near the pretty, picture post card town of Kretinga.
Marius collected me at just before 4am and we made the 30 minute journey to our chosen venue in high spirits, noisily planning our strategy for the coming session. The forecast promised scattered storms and already large swirling clouds could clearly be seen silhouetted against a back drop of a burning orange sky.
The Akmena River is an oddity in that until it reaches the Kretinga district it is actually known as the Dane. I had never before fished this part of the river and was pleasantly surprised, on our arrival, to find easily accessible banks, weeded margins and plenty of open water.
We settled on a flat gravel swim strewn with boulders exposed by the low, summer, water levels. The margins were clear in front of us but plenty of water Hawthorne, reeds and submerged weed made for a spot filled with character and gave cause for optimism.
With no discernable current and the only movement coming from the wind that already was beginning to strengthen, I elected for my usual plan of attack, a waggler fished on the deck, a single maggot on size 18 hook fished over a bed of mashed bread, loose fed casters and maggots.
Fish were coming from the off, at first Rudd but we soon fed those off to give way to a reasonable stamp of Roach, Bream to a nice size and the odd 'monster' Bleak. These days I never bother weighing the Bleak I catch in Lithuania but it isn't unusual for them to top 3oz (OK, not a monster in true terms but as Bleak go, that's big).
After an hour the rains came and with it the bites tailed off a little but our interest was maintained by the odd unusual catch, a couple of swan mussels each and then Marius landed a rather handsome looking Crayfish.
Some times the oddest things bring us pleasure and I am sure it will surprise some that my greatest moment came when bringing to hand my first gudgeon of the season. This is a species that can be caught in a few, select, venues in my immediate region but they are by no means as common as in England and so as a relatively 'rare' catch do bring a certain feeling of satisfaction. Added to this I am taking part in a Rod race and so my catch brought me another one and a half points.
As we prepared to pack up the rain eased and finally the clouds parted to reveal a blue sunny sky. Immediately the bites quickened so we stayed a little longer glad of being warmed by the morning sun.
This was an enjoyable session, 107 fish in 4 hours with a good mixture of species including Silver and Common Bream, Roach, Rudd, Gudgeon and Bleak. Marius enthusiasm for the sport in an 'English' context continues to grow and with it he is still improving with 70 plus fish all returned safely to the water as usual.
The swim lends itself to a session on the feeder over a larger bed of feed so may need to find myself a spod and arrange a night session for some time in the near future.
As for the weather, of course it turned out to be a hot dry day so had we have chosen to fish later we would have avoided a soaking!
SUPER LEAGUE CHAMPS 2007 
