January 12th Bristol Avon and Great Somerfords

With rain rattling the windows I left the house heading for the river. After yesterdays total blank I thought that perhaps the river might just be a better option. However saying this it had rained practically from midnight onwards so the river will be pushing through at a pace. My thoughts were roach again and there are a few 2lbers to be caught on the stretch I was planning to fish.

My heart sank a little when as I drove through the lanes water was everywhere even in the fields. The river didn’t disappoint, brown, rising and with plenty of debris coming down. This is the first real flush through since the leaves dropped of the trees. Leaves were coming down by the bucket load.

Because of this I decided to fish behind one of our man made flow deflectors. These were made to increase the flow in summer and to give sanctuary for fry in floods.

Flow deflectors

The river was still rising as I set up the tackle this time I was using one rod and a maggot feeder with a size 18 hook and 3lb line. I cast just on the crease where I thought there would be a fish or two. The deflectors just managed to keep the debris off the line. The river was rising very quick and was soon coming over the deflectors and the line was festooned in leaves and other rubbish. I had a couple of plucks on the line and that was it.

I visited another part of the river where the flow is not so strong, however the chap in the mill had opened the flood gates. They were flooded out last year twice and didn’t want to take any chances I suppose. The speed of the river was frightening and with the debris coming down it didn’t lift my spirits any.

One last chnace of a big roach was the lakes again. This time I would fish the gravel pit with the algae in and see what I could do. The rain continued to pour all day and at least I could sit under the brolly and blank in peace and quite. I arrived at lunch time and met Steve the owner again and together we laughed off the blank of the previous days adventure.

While he went for lunch I setup on a promontory close to the fishing lodge. Here I could see an occasional trout rise so I hoped that the roach would be moving too. I only had quiver rods with me so it had to be these with a swim feeder helicopter rig on one and a small 12g open ended feeder for the liquidised bread on the other. The rig was completed with a size 12 hook and bread flake on the hook. I was fishing about 10 yds out in about 6ft of water.

Once positioned under the brolly it wasn’t long before I had a couple of taps on the bread rod. And finally the tip really pulled around and a sweep of the rod and a fish was on. It appeared to be a small roach of about 1lb, still a good start. Out went the rod again and within a few minutes the same thing happened with an identical result. This happened 4 times and 4 roach, then the small rudd moved in started on the maggot feeder rod. At times I struggled to keep two rods going so I just concentrated on the breadflake rod. It was a bite every few seconds. I was really after the shoal of larger roach of 2lbs plus but with this lot around they probably wouldn’t get a look in. I thought about moving but with just 30 minutes or so of daylight left and the rain pouring still t just wasn’t worth the effort. At least the fish were feeding.

I continued fishing until darkness and lost count of the number of rudd I caught. However the large roach and rudd that frequent the lake didn’t put in an appearance. However spirits high that fish were feeding and there would be a chance soon of landing a big roach be it from Willow in Oxford or on this lake.