January 18th Hampshire Avon
I had arranged to have a couple of days fishing on the Avon. I thought there would be a drop in river level and clearing in colour which would be perfect for the chub. I set off from home with the 60 mile journey ahead with some light cloud cover and drizzle. As I drove down through Wiltshire countryside and Salisbury the drizzle increased to heavy rain and by the time I arrived to where I was staying it had increased to monsoon conditions. The rain poured all night heavily.
By the time I started fishing the next day the Avon was in the fields and the amount of debris coming down was not so good. Holding the lead in the flow was difficult enough.
I tried all the tricks of putting a float stop above the lead to prevent the debris moving the lead and taking as much line as possible out of the river. In the end I was beaten.
I found one slack area where in the 70 to 90’s I had caught barbel to just over 13lbs in flood conditions but this proved to be fruitless. I had a few enquires from eels as my only action.
Never mind these things are sent to try us.