Wednesday was an early start and I sat outside the car park of the fishery from 5am to insure I was first on an hour before sunrise as per club rules. I'd had a little walk around the fishery the day before and it sounded like the fish were now much more spread out throughout the venue unlike a few weeks back where they were all sat in just a handful of swims.
Day 1: As the sun rose I ventured on to the river to fish my favourite peg. The river looked in fine form dropping away from the recent floods still with a hint of colour.....looked like it should be a good day out.I set up a float line and a feeder rod too and positioned my Korum chair and side tray for easy access of bait etc. Once ready I made my first cast down with the feeder to get a little bait into the target area.
I kept the casting localised but not too tightly packed as I wanted to get the fish spread slightly so my float trot would have a little bit of space to run across the shoal if it was slightly off line.
A few more casts were made and after a short run of dace I got my first roach around a pound in weight. I then switched over to the float rig with my Drennan Acolyte 15ft and a 7 no 12 Lignum Stick float to size 18 hook.
I decided to try the feeder again and keep the swim active with regular casts. I tried the inside marginal shelf first up and as I positioned the rod in the rests it hooped around! Instantly I knew this was a much better fish.
The rod was hooped over and the fish shook its head around even taking line from the spool! This was either a huge roach or a pike had grabbed a smaller fish off my hook.
The battle continued for about 2 minutes and my heart was in my mouth waiting to see what it was I'd hooked.
I felt rather disappointed it wasn't the monster roach but also pleased when I weighed the fish at 2lb 12oz as this was a new river Avon PB for me.
The action continued throughout the day with over 70 roach to 1lb 10oz, dace to 10oz and another prime perch of 2lb 4oz, even a small skimmer came to join the club before the light went and I had to call it a day.
The river looked in good shape despite the horrid conditions we had woken up to. It was dark, raining and very windy. Presenting a float was near on impossible to start with so we went for a light feeder option each. A few casts were made in close only to be mullered by minnows.
The fish sat low all the way in and I thought to be honest it was a chub until I saw the round shape of a nice bream slide over the mesh of the net. At just over four pounds it was a good start to proceedings. The next cast was made and before the rod was even in the rest, the same thing happened again!
Another much better bream fought all the way to the net only to come off just before I slipped the mesh under it. I told Mark to get his bait out to the similar area and he was next up to hook a bream with his first ever river bream of 4lb coming quickly. It wasn't the chub we were dearly after but he was over the moon with his first ever river bream and a pb. I took a couple of pics for him and we both cast straight back to the little hot spot.
I got the net ready and in the flow it came to the surface. A big old chub of around 6 pounds! We were very excited! The fish buried deep into the fast flow and Mark kept his cool.
Finally it looked like the battle was won and as I went to net it she rolled on the hook link and the hook lost its hold. We were absolutely gutted. I thought there was a really good chance of another so I continued to put maintenance droppers of hemp and maggot in just above the spot.
We had to endure endless minnows and 3 pike attacks before he got another bream of 4 pounds. I felt that was it for the swim and we drove down to school bridge for one last blast at it. We started the process once more and suffered the plight of yet more minnow and a couple of gudgeon.It just wasn't happening for us. 3 more pike attacks for Mark and we watched as the angler just up from us landed 3 cracking chub one after another. We just couldn't find them ourselves. I felt disappointed but Mark was more than happy with the results for the day, landing a pb bream and learning lots of new skills he could take away to try on his own. We sat it out till light called an end to proceedings and we retired to the Oak pub in Burton for a pint of ale and a lovely dinner.
A thoroughly enjoyable yet tough day.
I ventured on as the sun came up and opted to fish a swim I'd not fished before. There weren't many bank side features but it's a known spot for a bigger fish.
I went straight onto the feeder and instantly started to get some fantastic dace up to 10 ounces again. This continued till around 11am with a few nice roach to a pound showing up too.
Things then went deathly quiet and throughout the fishery we were all struggling to even get a bite! It was as if there were literally no fish present! I cast round the swim with float and feeder trying new areas, single maggots, double, triple!
I persevered until last knockings for about 30lbs of silvers....a great day but I felt that things were just not as good as they were 2 days prior. There we go, that's fishing!
A great time out on the bank and some fantastic fish landed once again. A pleasure to be out enjoying the wild life and beautiful fish that both rivers have to offer.
Hopefully I'll get another chance of a big red fin before the season comes to a close and maybe....just maybe that bloody elusive Stour chub may make an appearance!
I've never had so many blank chub sessions on the Stour before? For a river that I have been exceedingly lucky on over previous seasons, it's been a lot less kind to me this season.
Tight lines all
Keith
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