River Avon 05-08-20

 

Headed to Lacock for an afternoon and evening

of  river fishing.

I was in my first swim by 2pm. This swim was a new one for me.

So in the hour or so I was there, I did quite a few casts to check

out the bottom features.

There are not to many snags so I made a drawing of 

the snags and reeds and cabbage leaves.

This is a must when the river is higher, with

colour and more pace.

I didn't get any interest on the baits, 

I didn't really expect any as the the sun was out

and the river clear and slow.

So I moved to my next swim.

This swim is a deeper one,

I have fished it a couple of times before

but never had much luck.

The main reason for fishing this one

was to introduce my bait in it again

and  do another profile of the bottom.

As it started raining I decided to stay

there for longer than I intended.

Once the rain stopped I headed to swim number three.

This swim is one I have fished recently and I wanted to check

out the bottom again.

There is a good flow from the reeds

into a hole, then a gentle rise  to more reeds.

Unfortunately there is a snag there.

I hope to get it out at a future date.

I sat here and played around with different 

hook lengths, weights and rigs.

A very enjoyable couple of hours.

With time passing very quickly

I moved on to my last swim. 

I did managed to catch this

2lb 7oz, 53cm long rather skinny Chub.

I was using my usual Dunbells and pellet mix

over hemp and Sweetcorn.

Also managed to catch a couple of

22cm Perch.

These were caught on worms.

 With time passing very quickly,I moved on to my last swim. 

This one is a usual swim I fish most times.

However there was no interest here for the

rest of the evening.

Not even the worm getting any interest.

So just after 21.30 I packed up and headed home. Another very enjoyable day. 

Ledges again.

Sunday 03-07-20 Ledges, Ladye Bay.

Decided to head to the Ledges for the afternoon high tide.

I arrived at my chosen swim at 11am

with Lug, Rag, Squid and Crab.

Well what can I say about it!

Blanked except for a tiny crab that managed to tangle

one of its legs in bait elastic.

Weed would pull the rigs out and bounce them down tide.

While I was there I didn't see any other fish caught.

Well it was enjoy able and I had plenty of casting practice.

I think it is back to the river later in the week.

Painful knee and and a Snotty. 29-07-20

Decided to try out Lilstock for the first time.

Boy those large shingle rocks are a proper pain in the knee.

Arrived down there at 05.30,

my knee started complaining straight away as expected.

Haven't any idea what this about, so I will look it up at some stage.

I haven't a clue about this either, plus plenty

other man made structures.

As for the fishing, I started at 06.00 to the right of this structure.

I used Rag, Lug, Squid, Mackerel and Crab.

I had 3/0 and 1/0 pennel pulley rigs and size 1 Wishbone rigs. 

Well with only one small rattle on the Wishbone rig,

my knee complaining like made, I packed up at 09.00.

I headed to Ladye Bay, Clevedon, for the high tide.

Using the same rigs and baits,

I fished from 11.00 till 15.00.

High tide was at  14.50.

I had run out of Bait.

About 13.20 I had a rattle on the Wishbone rig,

this  Green Eel tangled it's self around the rig.

With all the reports being so poor

along the Bristol Channel at the moment,

I think I'll head to the Bristol Avon next trip.

Afternoon and evening up Lacock. 19-07-20

Back up to try to catch Chub or Barbel.

I headed down stream in the hope it 

hadn't been fished for a while.

The first swim was a tight one,

surrounded by fallen trees and branches.

I used the Center Pin real,

hoping to get more practice

with casting accurately.

Well I had plenty of practice 

but no interest at all.

I moved about 20 meters up stream,

but after 3 rigs lost I decided to

move on to another swim.

This one I knew was clear of snags.

I tried to get the fish to come out

of the reeds which covered 

about 3/4 of the river width.

It is surrounded by trees which

gave it plenty of shade from the sun.

Once again no knock, taps or tip

pull rounds.

So after an other hour passed

I moved on.

Another fallen tree swim

and again no rod tip movement was seen.

There were plenty of birds moving about,

including Swans, Kingfishers, Wren,s Swifts,

Chaffinch and plenty more.

So on to swim five,

This one is usually  banker for

a fish or two.

More fallen and overhanging trees

but again no interest.

Another move to the final swim.

Here I did manage a few tip taps

and knocks 

but nothing in the net.

By now the the bats were having a great

time feeding on the hatching winged bugs,

the Tawny Owls were also very vocal so it was time

to head home and admit defeat.

Back to the Bristol Avon. 14-07-20

Yesterday it was back to the Avon.

Half a bucket of pellet, sweetcorn and hemp

plus loaded pellet stockings and PVA stockings,

were my freebee offering.

I chose a swim I had not fished before,

I managed 4 Chub in the first hour

 They weighed betweem

1lb 13 1/2oz 

and 

12lb 8ozs.

 Then there was a large hatch

of varying insects from the river.

This happened at the same time 

as the bites stopped.

I moved to two more swims

without any signs of fish feeding,

so I moved to a new swim

that I believed holds Barbel.

Well it did, but I

dropped it as the hook pulled.

Never mind,

it is really satisfying to do

a bit of leg work and find the fish.

The count so far, 2020 / 2021 season.

Two of the 30 Chub caught on the River Avon 

from 16 June 2020 to the 4 July 2020.

Best was 4lb 14oz.

I managed to get 10 Chub on 1 July 2020

 

 and 8 on 4-July 2020.

Back to the Bristol Avon 2020

Spent a couple of mornings by the Avon before 

the new season opened.

Saw Barbel and Chub 

as well as plenty of birds and other wild life.

 I was also checking out the

various swims for weed growth

and snags. 

All the usual swims were as expected,

but also a few new ones were also seen.

The river was low and slow as expected 

so plenty of fish were seen.