7th and 8th March D.Stour and H.Avon and a few chub

Well after the rain on Sunday I decided to fish the Stour and H.Avon on Weds and Thursday hoping that the water level would lower plus the colour drop out. A call to Brian the bailiff the day before concluded that there was still plenty of colour on the river and not much being caught.

I still decided to fish the Stour as I got up at 4am and set off at 4.30 down through the Bristol Avon valley then the Wylye valley plus the H.Avon valley. There was a strong wind blowing when I arrived at 6.15am and parked up. There were people getting their tackle together and some queuing to get on the fishery at 6.30am. I met my mate Paul Martin who was waiting to fish with Baz on Pig island. We had a chat about the fishing. Paul and Baz had fished the previous day for no bites. Now Paul know-es the Throop stretch really well and for him to blank does not spell good news. I headed off to my swim which was free and I settled in for the days fishing. The colour of the water was not good visibility only about 9 inches. So I started off thinking that float fishing might just work.

So for 4 hrs I fed and float fished the swim for nought. I understood that the day before a guy had a 7lbs 6oz chub out and that was the only bite he had. I fished the black cap feeder and cheese paste after dark and the score didn’t change. I have seldom had some much lack of activity. The strong wind made casting and control of the float impossible at times.

Talking to Paul and Baz they too had no activity and like me went home disappointed.

A few chub to 6lbs 15oz were caught but only just a few.

I retired back to Ringwood to sleep in the back of the “Black Pearl” after a pie and chip supper.

I had decided to fish the H Avon the next day and I was first on the fishery at 7am. The morning had a hint of frost as I walked to the swim, and clear blue sky.

I started by firing out pouch fulls of maggots into the 6 ft swim trying to get the chub feeding. And sure enough they were home. Have a look at this video.

The problem I had was that I only had about 2 pints of maggots for the morning so I had to restock with more from Avon Angling in Ringwood. As normal I was chatting to Andy in the shop for 30 mins or more. By the time I returned to the car park there were 8 more cars. Of course the swim was taken and that was it for the moment.

I headed off to see Paul Martin on the Stour, but I couldn’t find him. I stopped in a couple of the swims and talked to various people who were still blanking. It was now a very warm spring like day. The colour hadn’t dropped from the river, but still I gave it another go for two hours for no reward. I met with Chris the Manager of the fishery who confirmed that sport was very slow with few people catching much.

Now that was it headed for another part of the Avon and drowned 4 pints of maggots in a swim for no reward. It looked good but nothing was at home. Some of the branches in the small bushes opposite was littered with a few floats so at some time it produces. But not for me today.

As the sun set in the west I reflected that this would be the last time that I would head south this season. Both rivers had been kind to me and I thanked the chub gods for my catches.

I predicted this would be the year of the chub if the rivers stay low and clear and so it proved. Some people had some great fish none more than the 9lb 5oz chub from the Lea. Makes mine look like minnows.

Hope you had some great chub too.

This weekend will see some really big chub caught with plenty of PB’s well done to all.