A short session on the H.Avon and a good chub and heart ache.

I had been wanting to visit the H.Avon again however finding a window of opportunity was difficult. However today I had some financial business to deal with in the morning so it was possible that I could be fishing by 3pm.

The drive down is always a pleasure at this time of year.

I arrived to find the river lower than before and crystal clear. The 20mm of rain we had the previous day had little effect on the river.

Having walked a good few miles last time I decided to bait a few swims to see who was at home. The first swim I baited looked to have a good chub well over 6lbs swimming around, however I only caught a glimpse of it when the sun was behind a cloud.

I baited with hemp and red maggots. After a 15 min break I was back in the swim and found about 6 chub feeding hard on the maggots and hemp. None of them were particularly large(under 5lbs) so I’m not going to waste money feeding and catching small chub. It was now 4.15pm and I would give myself another 15 minutes to see if the big chub returned.

Well just before 4.30pm a couple of barbel moved in over the bait one was about 6-7lbs and the other looked to be a double. I think the smaller barbel was the chub I had seen earlier.

So away went the chub rod and out came a barbel rod. A few boilies were droppered into the swim. Sure enough the big girl kept coming back and taking a few. So she did this about 3 times and on the thrid time when she had vacated the swim I cast out a boilie on the spot.

Well I never in no time at all the reel was clicking as she took line from the spool. Over the other side of the river she went hanging high in the flow so that I could judge her size. Everything was going fine as she came across to my side of the river, then bingo the hook hold gave and she sank back down to the river bed again. A few choice words were said. However there is no need to get upset as I will catch her out again.

So that was it in that swim and I moved on to one swim that has produced some large chub in the past.

Sure enough baiting up with hemp and red maggots had the chub grubbing around on the river bed. My word the river was very clear. So out went the feeder with 3lb hooklink and size 20 hook. Were they interested NO!

I then started to catapult out some maggots and this got them chasing around in the flow, however on light float tackle again they didn’t want to know. The dace and chublets did though. I could have fished for them but again it’s the chub that I wanted.

So it was the last couple of hours of light and I need to change tact. Out went some source boilies together with some hemp.

It wasn’t long before my hair rigged boilie followed. The chub were straight on the bait. I caught a couple of 4lbers quickly. Then as it got darker and the sun was setting as if by magic some larger chub started to show.

It was one of these that picked up the bait. Not huge but a better chub.

H Avon 5lbs 4oz chub

I had a couple of other pulls and plucks, but it was time to head for home.

So it was a disappointment in losing that barbel ( temporarily), things didn’t turn out too bad.

It’s going to be difficult on the Avon at the moment with the low height and crystal clear, but we all like challenges.