First couple of visits of the 2020-2021 season to the H.Avon

The Covid 19 virus had still kept people in lockdown however luckily us anglers were allowed to fish again. Normally Andy (you should have been here yesterday) Cowley and I normally stay at my house in Fordingbridge for the first 4 days of the season. However this year this wasn’t possible because we were not allowed to visit second homes or meet with others indoors. So that put the kibosh on things. But we were not going to let the virus stop us from visiting the river on opening day on the Hampshire Avon.

So arrangements were made and aspirations shared of where we both wanted to fish. The day turned out to be hot and sunny. The river had some colour from an algae bloom so spotting fish would be mission impossible. I started in a glorious swim where I’ve caught some good 6lbers and friends have caught 7 lbers. However I just couldn’t buy a bite in there. So after a couple of hours I moved swims to another one where early season I’ve had some huge 6lbers. Again out went the bait of which more can be said about this later. Another 2 hrs and still nothing so I was getting desperate by now. Andy wasn’t fairing much better. So a decision was made for a 3rd move to one a swim where I might observe chub feeding on the bait. It was again on a different stretch of river. By the time I arrived it was about lunch time.

Sure enough I could see plenty of chub moving around the swim taking the pellets I had thrown in. Fantastic!

So my setup was a standard 18 inches of braid and two pellets super glued together on the back of a size 12 hook. Well I had 2 hrs of this with the chub picking up the baits or swimming into the line, the rod top continually nodding or pulling around. I tied changing rigs and types of hooklink material the lot and still couldn’t hook into a fish. All very frustrating I can tell you. The new bait that was made for me had not been tested before and it certainly didn’t have the chub climbing up the rod. Feeling disappointed as this was by far the worst start to any season on the river. So a change of bait and back to my normal pellet I cast out. Well within 5 minutes I had hooked a fish! Not a bad fish either at 5lbs 9oz.

So thinking they had started to feed properly I put the experimental bait back on the hook again. For an agonising 2 hrs again the rod tip would bounce around mainly due to line bites. They just wouldn’t respond to the new bait. By now I was even more desperate and thought I had given the new bait my best shot. I changed back to my original pellets and bingo within 2 minutes the rod hooped over and I was playing a chub. Not a big fish but a chub. This fish was followed up at 30 minute intervals with 2 other chub. Nothing of any size but still it was chub. I packed up at about 6.30pm as I had been up since 4.45am and with all the driving I didn’t want to risk falling asleep at the wheel.

I did give some feedback to the bait supplier and he sent me more pellets which are staying in the garage at the moment. He also sent me some smaller big squid dumbbells all hand made. Now this bait does work I know.

So to prove a point my next visit on the 19th June I headed straight for the same swim again this time armed with just the normal pellets that I’ve been using. Straight away the chub were feeding furiously on them ripping up the bottom. The day passed quickly and in all I caught 8 chub which although not spectacular it’s still good going on the Hampshire Avon.

Most of these fish are caught sight fishing and you can see the way they feed. It was becoming more apparent that they were just picking the pellets up in their lips testing for resistance. If they found some they would let go. My trick though of super gluing the pellets together close to the shank of the hook enabled me to get just that bit more of an edge on them. Several were hooked just in the inside of the top lip. So a great learning for me.

The largest of the day was wonderful 5lbs 12oz chub. It would be over 6lbs later in the year.

So whats the difference with the pellets. I’m not going to let on here other than say that after many discussions with various anglers who know much more than me we think there must be a stimulant in the pellets that encourages the fish to feed. As in a commercial world you need to ensure the fish feed whether they want to or not, it’s all about weight gain and being ready and harvested for the market place. If it didn’t work then people wouldn’t buy the pellets for the competitive commercial world.