A couple of trips one to the lower Severn after the large barbel that swim there. It’s the very first time I had dipped a line in the river. I had joined a syndicate there to fish during the late autumn and winter when the H.Avon is in flood.

The lower Severn

My first visit is just a look and see. I like very much what I see the banks are steep however the water was low with little flow. I was using some West Country Bait boilies and some chopped ones in a PVA bag.

Photo of river

I had loads of bites but these are from eels. A chap Laurence fished just upstream from me and caught a nice looking 10lbs 2oz barbel.

Me a blank but I’m looking forward to fishing it later in the year.

The second trip was to show Gareth a stretch of the Bristol Avon that I fish and he is interested in joining.

We tried a selection of the river swims and had chub feeding in most. It was great fun fishing floating crust. The flow on the river was very slow and tricking the chub was difficult. However out of 5 takes Gareth managed to land 3 of them.

I said to him that a 4lber would be a good fish.

His first one was about 2lbs followed by a couple of missed fish and one where the line parted for no reason.

We arrived at the weir pool where we had a couple of takes.

The first fish was about 3lbs.

3lbs average size

This was followed by a much better fish that tore off under a tree branch. We managed to extract it. What a fish it was of exactly 4lbs and a very good one for that part of the river.

4lb chub

I will take him to the venue once again when there is more water in the river.

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