6th October Bristol Avon

I’m planned to guide tomorrow with a couple of anglers and since I had not been on the river for a while I though I had better look around and see if the fish were still in the normal places. This time of year can sometimes be difficult with the water being cooler and the weed beds dying back the fish move towards their winter retreats. I had planned to fish for chub and try a chance for a barbel. The river was very low and clear like it had been for most of the summer.

Walking the stretch showed me that the chub were still feeding. In one area I put out some hemp and had a barbel feeding but it just wouldn’t pick up my bait.

I met Dave who is the regional organiser for the Tench Fishers he was fishing a swim I fancied. Poacher I whispered in his ear as he fished. The swim is a lovely little glide and has produced some stunning chub and barbel, however today other than a couple of smaller chub the swim was devoid of fish he was blanking there.

We fed some barbel in a swim further downstream however they were only little fish up to about 6lbs. They would dart out from under some weed and intercept the pellets as they travelled down over the gravel run. Dave had fed the swim previously and decided to fish it.

I wandered off to fish a couple of swims that contain one or two big fish however no one was home.

I did have a couple of swims in mind which were full of chub but nothing much over 4lbs. I put out some pellets and sure enough the chub went down on the bait.

I was using a short hooklink and a bolt rig setup. What’s really great about these two swims I fish you can see the chub take the bait. This sight fishing is great fun and very exciting. The chub intercept the free offerings as they drift down in the current. Then the ones that settle on the bottom are then taken last.

The flow on the river has been so poor this year that I’ve not been able to further develop my float fishing pellet approach. However if the flow increases then this will be one of my preferred method.

Dave came to see me and said he caught a small chub from the swim with the barbel in. He settled in a swim just below me.

Soon though he was wandering back up asking if I had a spare baiting needle. He had apparently speared his finger with the thing and had to cut off the needle and feed it through the hole………….I’m not good with blood so enough said.

Sure enough I loaned him another one.

I end the day with several chub nothing of any size the largest going 3lbs 14oz and was a little battle scared.

A battle worn 3lbs 14oz chub

It was great to be back on the river. The evenings though are beginning to draw in and the sun set at about 6.30pm.

Soon it will be time to be fishing cheese paste after dark  for a couple of large chub over 5lb that I’ve seen. Each time you approach the swim during the day they just fade away under cover.