Quite a lot of work on at the moment which means I can't wiz out on BIF 1 to take advantage of any last minute weather windows. What I can do, being a meet of various fishing clubs, and having access to some private waters, is nip out for a quick spin on the rivers. 'Private waters' sounds bit grand as mostly I am fishing tiny tributaries of the Adur, and other rivers , that no one else wants to bother with. The disadvantage to this is that they are usually over grown to hell, but of course the flip side is that the fish are pretty gung ho and not leader shy, so I can use hefty braid and rive the gear through the undergrowth and weeds. I use wire nearly all the time as big pike run up these little streams all the time.

So what else is on offer? well a surprising amount of quality wild brown trout. They see to be everywhere on the upper reaches of the tributaries. We catch them on debarbed mepps and a lot of places the only way you can fish is a small jig head lrf style with a tiny shad or worm. It's exciting fishing in two foot of water when a decent trout or perch soundly pounces. The takes are very visible and often right on the top and immediately under the rod tip.

All my pike have been like peas in a pod in the last couple of days 4 or 5 lb or so, but as the weather has got cooler they have been much more scrappy and good fun on the light gear. I've caught some cracking perch on huge pike spinners but for some reason didn't get round to photographing them, and most days I'll pick up several chub some of which can be very chunky on these under fished corners of Sussex.

Isn't it amazing that in one of the most densely populated parts of the world we can still find wilderness fishing ( well nearly). I have also see a fox with a newly caught rabbit, a deer, several hawks, a water vole, and more than one sea trout moving or sitting above structure in the clear low water.

A quick look at google earth with reveal some completely unfished waters, and I have no worries about fishing pressure, as factors such as getting over fences, through brambles , getting permission from then land owners, nettles and actually finding a pool to get a cast in, is enough to put off all but the daftest angler.