October 25th Great Somerford

Well that was the worst frost of the year so far! The grass was still white on the lawn in the shade of the house as I set off at noon. the objective of the day was to fish for pike on some of the trout beats. I was using some sprats as wobbled baits. The river here is very narrow so casting long distances is not required. The conditions were far from idea. Bright blue sky and wall to wall sunshine. Not only that but the leaves were really starting to fall.

I had it my minds eye to walk the river and fish in likely holding area’s. Just giving a few casts in each spot and then move on. Well anyone tell you there are no trout in the river, think again. In all the deep pools I caught rainbows and browns of a couple of pounds or more. The baits were going fast!

I pulled off and went to another part of the river where previously I had caught a few good pike to just over 20lbs. The river tends to fish very well after a flood and is fining down. I believe this is because the pike have not fed and are hungry, as the water clears then they go on a feeding spree.

Again the colours of autumn and the bright blue aszur sky was a joy. The wind from the north though did have that chill to it and as the afternoon moved towards evening then I had to put an extra jumper on. I only had two takes and two little pike to show for my efforts, but the big old girls are there and I need to wait a while. There is still plenty of weed for them to hide behind.

There are some great area’s for perch and time is soon coming to try a lob worm or two.

The weir shown above has never given me any of it’s good fish that live there. 20lb pike have come out, perch well over 2lbs. I remember once I was fishing with a mate Alan and I said that the pool wasn’t any good, as he struck into a large perch using a live bleak. He did rib me about this a little!