Pleasure Fishing the Bristol Avon

The last couple of weeks have seen me working away, with last week me being in Holland. Weather was the same cold, damp and no sun. I hadn’t thought about fishing and so forgot to order any casters. There was a match at Newbridge which I forgot about and with no casters I was not going to compete. I hatched a plan to fish the lower Avon somewhere.

I was looking forward to getting back on the bank, and after watching the Gas win on Saturday was buzzing. I got wrapped up and loaded the van, then got a couple of pints of maggots from Premier Angling. Decided to stay here and fish the Crane, and pushed my trolley to the peg just over the cattle grid. This peg has a large Willow tree opposite that’s now badly damaged I assume from floods and wind, and so I set up a block end feeder for this. Also set up a 13BB crow quill for fishing about a third out.

I had about an hour on the feeder with no bites and then got snagged up and lost everything. I didn’t think it was worth setting up again so grabbed the float rod. Probably spent 45 minutes on this and was thinking this was not going to happen when a long way down the peg I hooked a chub. I was on 0.12 and pulled as hard as possible but it snagged me up. Onto 0.13 powerline, and hooked another chub in the same spot and this one also snagged me up. I then hooked one closer to me and got it out no problem, about 3lb. Nice to get one out!

I hooked what I think was a fouler as it was a dead weight and then it pinged off, this mead to a quiet spell. I then had a visit from my former school teacher and former match angler Roger Stone. Older anglers will remember Roger for sure, he told me he had not fished for 20 years and is himself 80 years old. Sad to say as we chatted and he asked me about certain anglers and I had to tell him many had passed away. Sadly I never had a bite whilst we chatted, but no sooner had he walked out of sight and I hooked another chub by the boat, and it was soon in the snag and gone. I tried fishing further out but I couldn’t get a bite there, the float had to be by the boat.

There’s lot of underwater weed and reeds on this peg, and to get the float to run down the side of the boat I had to cast further out and down and then slow it up to come in below the snags. I was going to keep trying and hope that a chub would swim out into the river, but I put a 0.15 hook length on now. That didn’t help much and I lost another 2 chub quite quickly one I got a lot further up to me but it still snagged me. They had all felt like decent size fish, so when I hooked the next one and it didn’t pull so hard I was hoping I could get it out. Success and a 2lb fish landed.

After a bit of a wait I hooked another chub, this one felt heavy and dead handy it swam out into the middle of the river. After a few nervous moments I got it in the net. It was my best one and probably 5lb. That was the last fish as a while later I snagged bottom and lost everything, an original topper float drifted off down river.

That was plenty of fun and not being a match I wasn’t worried about losing the chub. It would need a pole and Strong elastic approach sat next to the boat I think to keep the chub away from the snags.

Nice to hear the bream showed at Newbridge, with Jerry Pocock winning the match with 70lb. Think there were a few 50lb and plenty of back up weights. Shaun Townsend had 26lb of chub by the pumphouse to only beat one angler in his section. Dean Harvey had a bream of 8lb 14oz, huge!

One thing about today was despite the bitter cold I stayed warm, the Preston Celsius fleece is brilliant, and with my Sonubaits bobble hat I was toasty! Time to finish the prep now for the ATWL final next week, carp bingo for me need a draw 🙏🙏🙏

Where did January go?

 Just posting a quick update as I have not been fishing since my match at Windmill. I was going to fish a match on the river but Rovers match was put on a Sunday and I watched that and glad I did as I saw a rare win!

Quite honestly I can’t motivate myself to go out when I see how tough places are fishing, so I’ve been doing some family time. However. I’ve been doing a bit of prep, as I’m fishing the Angling Trust Winter League Final with Thatchers. Ten anglers are in the team, 5 fish on the Fenland Drains and 5 fish at Decoy Lakes. I’m in the Decoy team so have been tying rigs, hooks etc. looking at recent matches at the venue it is carp bingo, so the drawbag is going to play a huge part. Mind you the normally prolific drains are very poor in places, with one recent open match being abandoned after 4 hours with nobody having a bite. 

If the cold weather stays, and the fish don’t come into the drains then Lady Luck will play a huge part in this final which takes place Saturday 22nd February.

Windmill Fishery Open

Happy New Year! It’s been a few weeks since I last fished, 1) because I spent New Year’s in Tenerife and 2) because I didn’t fancy fishing given the river levels and temperatures. The weather was lovely in Tenerife and I even got to see dolphins and whales on a boat trip. 

Getting back home I had another chesty cough and blocked nose, about 5 times in a year now, which also kept me off the bank. Midweek working up in Yorkshire I felt like I wanted to go fishing, the temperature was coming up and lakes thawing out. With no river matches on that I could see I booked in for Windmill. Then the weather changed and got cold and I was thinking it was going to be tough.

After watching the Gas win (been a while) and a few celebratory drinks I was looking forward to Sunday. A quick breakfast to fuel me and then off to the fishery. 12 fishing today, not surprised by the low turnout as it was absolutely freezing! Nick Sanders did the draw and I pulled out peg 23. I had to be happy with this as it seems the carp are this end of the lake, and on Thursday Kai Hurley had 53lb off it for fourth. Being the shortest walk I was soon at the peg.

First obvious spot to fish to was the island reeds, just to the right as the angler on 25 can cast to the end of the island. I had a lead rod for here, and pole at 16m with 4x12 in about 3 1/2 feet of water, 0.11 to 18 GPM.

I also had a 4x16 rig for fishing two 14.5m lines in the deep water. 

Lastly my 16m rig would do for fishing next to margin reeds at 12m, it was a float length deeper here.

With only 12 here I had lots of room, with Gary Bedford on 21, Antony Bright on 25, bang opposite me on 1 was Jon Osbourne. We started at at 10:15, thirty minutes later Mr Bright has a carp on method feeder, and two chucks later another. Soon after Jon had a carp and lost one on the long pole in deep water. I’d been dobbing various areas without a sniff, nothing on my deep swims. A hour in and I had my first bite from 16m, 15 seconds later it came off.

Another hour or so and no bites, Gary had 2 carp and John 2, but on peg 3 Gerry Welsh had 30lb dobbing. Eventually I got bored and despite 5 layers was feeling the cold, so I went for a walk. Other than Gerry and John Williams on 6 (which won on Thursday) not much was caught, even the likes of Shaun Townsend were blanking. What was noticeable was that a few anglers had carp moving in the reed, but my reeds were empty. I returned to the peg and still couldn’t get a bite anywhere, I was a bit fed up as clearly there were carp this end but I was avoiding them. The margin line was dead, and so I started to loosefeed maggots here with a catapult to try to make something happen.

Just after 1:30pm I hooked a carp on double maggot in the margin. Landed a 5lb fish and then realised I had not put my keepnets in, so thought I better put one in! Next drop in the margin and waited about 15 seconds for the float to go under, carp number 2 was soon in the net, a nice 9lb common. Next drop in missed a bite, but soon attached to carp number 3 and another 7lb in the net. At this point Leyton Palmer sat on the bench by me, he saw me hook and shortly afterwards pull out of a carp. Luckily it was well away from the margin and I was soon into another carp.

By 2:30pm and with an hour to go I had 47lb on my clicker, and Glenn Bailey and Dave Haines had also been watching me. The margin line then died, not really surprising considering the great spell I had. I’d tried toss potting, fishing further away but no more bites. I tried my other lines to rest the margin, but no bites anywhere. I decided to sit it out in the margin for the last 20 minutes (finishing at 3:30pm), but there were no signs. Just as I said to Jon “is it all out yet” my float dipped and as I struck the all out was called by Nick… “fish on!”. A nice 8lb mirror to end the day. 

I had the scales and had to weigh from peg 11 back to me. It wasn’t going to take long. Gary on my right had 3 carp for 23lb 11oz and that was the best until I weighed 55lb 4oz.

Winner today was Gerry Welsh with 60lb 11oz, all caught dobbing, well done Ger!

I was second, and third was John Williams with 33lb on peg 6.

Silvers was jointly won by Paul Barnfield and Mat Tainton with 4oz. I think the lakes silvers have been decimated, the clue being 14 cormorants on site.

I was happy to get home and get warmed up, and reflected on a poor day brightened up by a wonderful hour. Don’t think the temperature got much above 3C today and in my book any result in winter is a bonus. I was glad I finally found the fish and didn’t pack up which did briefly go through my mind lol!