Watercraft

Another trip to the Avon on the 14th, the drive south being made in rainfall of ever increasing intensity. Unsurprisingly the river was up a good six inches, and rising. Fishable at first but when the rain stopped around noon the amount of weed coming down made fishing the two swims I had been shown all but impossible. I'm sure fish were still there, but keeping a bait in place long enough to tempt them was the problem.

As the rain fell during the morning one barbel of 8lb 4oz had succumbed to my boilie, fished in conjunction with a four half-bait stringer. The method being to leave the rig out for as long as it took. A chub an ounce under four pounds fell for the same tactic - this time with a small bag of pellets in place of the stringer. But the afternoon saw baits remaining in place for about fifteen minutes, rather than the hour or more that had resulted in fish.

What to do? By mid-afternoon it was too late to head for the Trent as I'd hit the rush hour traffic on the M5/M6. Not worth sticking it out where I was as it would be a brick wall job. So rods wound in and off for a wander downstream. I was looking for somewhere I could present a bait in the flow, but where the line wouldn't collect debris too easily. I soon found it behind a fallen willow. With the level up there was water coming through between the bank and the willow, a slack behind it and the main current pushing round the outside of the bend beyond.

It was a bit of a cramped spot with the level as it was, and the overhanging trees made casting difficult, but a move was made. In went a few droppers of pellets on the outside crease and two baits (with attendant bags of pellets) went out. One at the top of the crease and one further downstream where the slack tailed off.

After only fifteen minutes another eight pounder was landed, this one two ounces heavier, on the downstream rod, followed by a six pounder an hour later. Far more satisfying to use my brain to catch those two fish than had I caught them from a swim I had been shown. The river continued to rise slowly yet remained fishable, but shortly before nine pm a smallish bream decided me to get some shut eye and plan the following day's campaign.

Up at five thirty and a walk to the river showed it had risen a good six inches more. The willow swim was almost cut off and the eddy more of a swirling cauldron than the calm haven it had been. It could have been fished but would have been a struggle. A walk along the whole stretch found no more likely looking spots. Well, there was one, but there was no way a fish could have been landed from it, so it was out of the question. The original swim was inaccessible, but the next one down, from which a bait could be placed in the same spot as from the upstream swim looked okay. Just so long as there wasn't much rubbish coming down. I decided that I might as well have my bacon butty on the river bank as in the car park, so I put a couple of rods out. This soon proved that the weed hadn't abated, and from placing my landing net in the water it was obvious the river was still coming up. After a couple of hours I'd had enough, tackled down and headed home.

Zander weekend

Having been invited down to the Midlands for a spot of zander fishing by John Cahill I also got the chance of a day with Mick Bowen on the Avon and one on the Wye with Steve Bown after barbel as the zander fishing would be a nocturnal affair.

The first night's zedding was a flurry of activity, but a lot of dropped runs and only small fish landed. I lost one and landed one. Nothing above four pounds. So off to the Avon with Mick in the morning. After a few hours Mick went trundling pellets round a bend and was soon into a fish of about five or six pounds.

Not long after I was into my first Avon barbel. Far from a monster, but a fish from a new-to-me river nonetheless.

Another fish, a little bigger came along before it was time to pack up and head back to the zedding for the evening. 10mm halibut pellets fished over loose fed 6mm and 10mm pellets with a bag of the same on the hooks did the trick.

The night was quiet apart from Steve Bown getting a zander about six pounds early on and me losing an eel in the three pound range when a treble got stuck in the landing net. A late breakfast was had in the morning before heading off to the Wye with Steve. It wasn't long before he had the first barbel of the day, one of around four or five pounds. Things went quiet and a move was called for.

In went some feed and as soon as some cloud cover rolled in, right on cue, Steve hooked and lost a fish. This set the pattern and every time some cloud came over, it was a bright and hot day, the rod tops would start rattling. Mine was the next to lurch over and we were soon guestimating the weight of the fish in the net. The scales decided the argument by settling at 8lb 14oz - not bad for a first Wye barbel.

I hooked and lost two more fish before landing a six pounder that turned out to be the last fish of the day.

The final night's zander fishing kicked off well for Steve with a seven pounder, but the rest of the night was quiet in the extreme - which was good for me as I was lacking sleep!

Breakfast at six and on the road home by seven fifteen along a strangely quiet motorway system!

Thanks to all concerned for the hospitality.

Three month wait

Having caught my fifth tench of the season from water X on April 25th, my second visit, I got my sixth on the 11th of August. A battle scarred fish of 6lb 5oz.

Luckily I'd managed to fish waters Y and Z in June and managed a few bigger ones - one of which you can see in the Gallery


I was itching to try out my new camera so took some pics of myself holding a hybrid this session. Not the largest I'd had, but still a boilie munching three pounder.