Jake and Tim fishing the Bristol Avon

Both Jake and Tim are very busy people with work etc and fishing time is very limited, they had been fishing for barbel over the last few months and had drawn a blank.

They ask me to show them a few swims on the Bristol Avon where they might find some barbel. To be fair I said the conditions were not ideal as the flow and level of the river were at a very low level. the algae bloom was still colouring the river. Spotting was very difficult. I did show them some swims that do contain some barbel and should they fish them at some point they would catch one. Tim had caught them a good few years ago to over 12lbs, however I had to give them the news that the otters had caused havoc on the barbel population and numbers were well down compared to those of 6 years ago.

I didn’t pull any punches on saying what I thought of the situation.

We fished a middle stretch of the Avon where barbel were present in good numbers. I had some earlier in the season however it wasn’t fishing well at the moment.

We did feed a few chub but no barbel. The aim was to catch a barbel however more important for Jake and Tim was to identify the swims and learn the feeding and baiting techniques.

We didn’t catch too many chub there so moved on to another stretch. Here they saw the drawing power of hemp. First there were no chub on the gravel. After introducing a couple of handfuls of hemp the swim had about 12 chub tearing the bottom up after the last particle of hemp. Next we moved to another stretch upstream and saw again how pellets also do the same. We introduced a few off a bridge only to see a good few chub come up and feed. I was hoping a barbel might just appear but it didn’t.

We still caught a couple of chub from there and the landing of the fish was a challenge and they both had a great time doing this.

Bridge fish chub for Tim

Bridge fish chub

It seemed each swim we fished we caught in no time at all.

We also fished another swim where within a few minutes of casting out the chub obliged. It was difficult to get another fish without leaving the swim for an hour or so.

To finish we settled into a swim where we baited with hemp and caught a few chub. Nothing huge but still some action.

Both said they had learned so much during the day especially seeing the pulling power of hemp and pellets and fishing close to snags where they needed to hook and hold.

The last fish of the day was special. Tim had reeled in and just as Jake was about to do the same the rod did that 3ft twitch and he landed a nice chub.

Last cast and fish of the day

I think they both enjoyed the session. They enjoyed so much we are off to the river Wye fishing in September. Happy days.

I think they both had a good day