Dog difficult day on the H.Avon but success on the Bristol Avon

Since the last guiding session with Mark having that fantastic catch I’ve been busy doing plenty of fishing and guiding.

First I travelled to the H.Avon in search of some large chub. Again I walked and walked the fishery looking for large chub. I wasn’t on the fishery early as I had a few jobs to complete at home first. As I walked I bumped into John McGough who is a master on the H.Avon particularly with the barbel. He is an outstanding angler who helps me no end. He had already had a 12lb plus barbel and a chub of 5lbs or so.

The day was hot and when I mean hot 30c plus. John and I chatted for a good while and he as normal showed me a few swims and told me he had had a 7lb chub already this year. And there am I looking for my first from the Avon.

John was lucky as he had found some shade from the sun. It was one of those days where you needed an umbrella to stay in the shade.

I chose a couple of swims where I found chub feeding but nothing of any size.

I then looked at an area way downstream where I met a great bloke from Devon who was fishing the H.Avon on a return journey back to the West Country. He hadn’t fished it for years and I had to say he had chosen a difficult dog of a day.

I wandered around the fishery finding some great spots for the future. God it was hot!

Even my maggots got sunstroke and I had to get reinforcements.

Eventually I returned to a great swim where I could see some huge chub feeding on the maggots and hemp I had introduced. Hooking them proved to be very difficult as the river was crystal clear with little breeze. I could see them and I’m sure they could see me. Or my line.

Nothing in this swim so I moved down to another stretch where I trotted casters and caught lots of small chub and dace. The dace were of a good size with some around the 8oz mark, great fun on light tackle.

Well that was it a difficult day for sure.

Next was a special day. Normally I help Charley coaching some disadvantaged children. And sure enough the day came along. We were fishing a small local club lake where there were lots of small fish and one or two smaller carp.

6 coaches gathered and set up the tackle early in the morning. Soon enough the young people arrived and I was allocated a couple of great guy’s who had fished before but had not caught a fish.

So we were using short whips and maggots. Sure enough the first cast produced a small rudd to each of them. Then more roach and rudd came along. We tried a small cube of l.meat however the carp were slow and soon enough we were back on the maggot.

Slowly the guy’s got used to shipping the whip in and out and at the end used to returning the fish. The final piece was to get the maggots on the hook. Bingo it was all coming together.

They each caught 25 roach,rudd and perch and were self sufficient in doing it all other than unhooking the fish.

I encouraged them to keep a log of what they had learnt and what they caught.

The look on their faces on catching the fish was such a great pleasure. I won’t show any photo’s here as I’ve not got permission.

So with each individual receiving a whip each and some other prizes they were off on the coach again. The careers said that the young people where the quietest they have ever been.

Well done Charley.

So with an evening session beckoning I moved to the top end of the Bristol Avon. I was going to visual fish for chub and barbel. The barbel did round up a few pellets in a swim but wouldn’t venture out from under the sanctuary of a bush. It’s tail swishing back and forth but not in a safe zone where I wanted to fish.

I then found a lovely little swim not fished this season so far. I had to beat down the nettles to get to the bank. Here I threw a few pellets into the swim and sat back to watch a few chub start to drift into the swim and start to feed.

So the rod was a 1.5tc quiver rod with 8lbs line as there are a few snags close by. First cast was perfect, well you wouldn’t expect anything less. After a few tugs and pulls nothing much came along. On winding in the pellets had gone. The swim is so constricted I need to break the rod down in half to rebait. So after another perfect cast the bait visible on the river bed a chub came along and took the pellet and charged off into the cabbages on the far bank. Pig ping, ping the line cut though the stems and up they popped.

I soon had it under the rod top and into the net. It looked a better than average size chub. On the scales it went 4lbs 11oz.

In this confined swim you normally get one chance, I had mine. So I moved further downstream and tempted a few more chub using the same method and visually seeing them take the bait.

Happy days no big chub but still an enjoyable couple of hours.