June 22nd Bristol Avon and first barbel of the season

I’ve resisted taking the rods out when looking at the Bristol Avon for barbel so far, that is until today. Normally I take a bucket of hemp and place it in different swims and just observe what turns up.

Today I was visiting a stretch I intend to fish this year as there are still a few doubles to be had.

On arrival I met Shaun who had been looking around the stretch, he had his rod in hand but hadn’t cast in just yet. I met him last year fishing with his son, and they caught a couple which was great. We talked about the river and things, while we were watching a shoal of barbel near the far bank.

I went further down the river and spotted a few more barbel in a couple of swims.

As I returned to the car to go and have a look at another stretch of the river about 10 miles further upstream, the urge just got too much for me. I went back to a swim where we saw the barbel and after 2 handful of hemp they had got their heads down and were grubbing away.

Shaun returned as I was tackling up (poacher I think he said), however I gave him first option.

Nothing, they did come back over the hemp occasionally but they wouldn’t feed. I think we put the bait (pellet) in too soon.

Never mind they would feed again soon. After 30 minutes I headed off to the other stretch.

This is about the avergae size fish for the weir pool.

It’s a weir pool that has some reasonable size barbel and plenty of chub.

After putting in some hemp Jim a coach in fly fishing came along and we chatted about the river and how much it had changed over the last 10 years and what damage the otters had done. The urge came again to fish and after placing the pellet over the baited hemp area I sat with Jim. It didn’t take long and a nice little barbel of 3-4lbs came to the net, followed by 4 chub all around the 2lb range.

Need to spot those bigger barbel on the first stretch, however I know where they live and it won’t be long. Another angler who turned up said that the car park was full the previous night, so they might be spooked.