December 10th Bristol Avon

The week had been one of the coldest on record for this time of year with temperatures not getting above -3c around the Bath area even during the day. The forecast was for the weather to improve on Friday with a slight increase in air temperatures to a balmy 5c.

I decided to try for some chub at Lacock with cheese paste and bread. I could only manage a short 3 hr session in the late afternoon. It was good to be out on the banks, however the river looked very low and clear. Ice was on the surface of the river in some of the shallower margins. However being an eternal optimist I thought some chub could be feeding. I would need though to put it right in front of their lips.

As I walked across the field I spotted another angler upstream from where I wanted to fish. It turned out to be a mate Andy Cowley who had been there for a while and had caught 2 chub. We chatted for a good 30 minutes or more before I thought about fishing. Wishing each other all of the best I wandered off to find the spot where I thought a few chub would be hiding up. I had a couple of taps on the rod top on cheese paste here but nothing that you would strike at.

I wandered to a few other swims where in the past chub would be crawling up the rod. I blanked in these. I met up with Andy again and he had one more chub of 4lbs 4oz so he was quite happy. He said though that the bites were very tentative but this chub gave a good pull.

I fished my last banker swim until darkness with just a couple of plucks whilst Andy fished a swim just above me. The afternoon now passed into darkness and we both said our goodbyes and headed off home. This is the first proper blank I’ve had in ages on the river, but it was still good to be out and about.

I had some interesting news from down south, a possible record chub weighing 8lbs 4oz has been caught in a match on the Dorset Stour. My sources told me it was not a million miles from where I had my 7lbs 12oz in October.

8lbs 4oz is a big old lump of a chub.

Can’t wait for the lakes to thaw out and kick start my roach campaign again.