24th February Lacock Bristol Avon

Well here I was on my first visit back from two weeks holiday in the Cape Verde island of Sal. It was only a short session to see what was up on the the river. I arrived to find the river a little higher than normal and coloured since we had some rain on the Tuesday when I returned and I guess I wasn’t fully in tune with what had gone on.  The temperature was 11c and it was a cloudy with a hint of sun occasionally.

I soon found Paddy and Bob Gill  the rod builder who is by far one of the best in the UK. He is on the BFW web site, check him out! The fishing had been slow for the last few weeks although Paddy had caught some big chub to almost 6lbs. Most of the barbel had disappeared and those that were left had tails missing  and rake marks on the body.

I will not be catching many large barbel at Lacock in the future, or even in my lifetime. What a big shame. On Paddy’s recommendation I went for a long walk to find a chub swim where there was some slack water.

The colour of the river was not conducive for chub but hey ho beggars and choosers I felt that something could come from the swim. It wasn’t until 5pm that i had my first bite from a reasonable size chub from the Bristol Avon of 4lbs 6oz.

Then later I had one more small chub of about 1.5lbs. Then it went quite and at 6.30pm the rod tip disappeared into the darkness and it was time to go.

I caught the chub on cheese paste which I had hanging around in the freezer since, well along time. I was using 5lb line with a 3 SSG link. The chub didn’t fight well until they felt the river flow. Then they tended to try and find the trailing branches and shrubbery in the margins.

I nice 4 hours fishing!