Tell you what I read a very interesting post on facebook regarding guiding. In a nut shell it was about whether a guide should fish when they are guiding. My view is that they shouldn’t unless the client would like to watch and learn. Demonstration is part of learning and to see how it’s done correctly is a good starting point when establishing a technique. It’s a very interesting subject. There is some advantage in fishing double swims that are quite close but is this really fair?

Anyhow back to the fishing trip today. I only had about 3 hrs to spare and I hadn’t been on the river since Friday night when it had been well up and like mud. Then on Saturday night we had another 20mm of rain which pushed it up a further 6ft. You could see where it had washed the bankside vegetation.

By now (Wednesday) the river was dropping and clearing. You couldn’t quite see the bottom and the gravel runs and weed but it looked clear enough for the chub to feed. I fished the first swim with no response for about 45 minutes. Then I moved to another swim which normally produces a good few barbel and chub. I was using a running ledger rig with a hair rigged pellet of 12mm.

So as you can see not really a looker. Whilst I was taking the video I had already cast out and just after I slipped the chub back the rod belted around again. This time the fish really fought well and I thought that I had hooked a small barbel. However when I saw it under the rod tip I thought nice chub.

So that was it. I had a few other tugs and pulls and landed 2 more but they were not in a great feeding mood. Give it another few days and the river should be back down to normal summer level. However with the rain we have had is anything normal at the moment. The chub though on the Bristol Avon are growing bigger. The largest one that I knew of last year was a 7lbs 14oz specimen.

I had booked the beat earlier in the year on the middle stretches of the river Wye. The problem with booking early is that it’s impossible to know what the weather will be doing and what state the river would be in. Now as we all know June has been one of the wettest on […]

After the difficult 6 weeks or so after the sudden death of Dad it was good to be guiding again on the river. Luke and his Dad Steve had wanted to catch some chub and barbel from the Bristol Avon. The family had given Steve a voucher for a days guiding for his birthday present. The […]

Well how quickly time goes. I’ve just returned from a 2 week holiday on the lovely island of Fuerteventura. Lucky me, well I should say we for the better half enjoyed it too. For a change I had decided to have a two week break knowing that the tench would be spawning (which they haven’t) […]

Well I’ve just returned from fishing Horseshoe again for 48hrs and blanked. Well I say blanked but a 2lbs 2oz perch and 1lb rudd and a small roach didn’t actually set the world on fire. Unlike the weather which did feel rather warm. The summer bay was closed off for the carp to spawn and […]

I haven’t been able to fish much over the last few weeks. My dear Dad passed away suddenly at the age of 85. This leaves Mum who needs some help. So I’ve pretty busy doing the normal things that you do for arranging a funeral etc. I’m not going to write too much hear about […]

Dan from Cadbury Angling joined me for a tench fishing session at Great Somerfords. We arrived to find a blustery wind blowing from the south. The lake looked perfect, the level was at the highest that I had ever seen. To start with I put out some hemp and dead maggots with just a few […]

I was invited by Des Richardson to give a talk at the Wiltshire Barbel Society regional meeting last night. The subject matter was about enjoying the journey towards achieving our goals in fishing. For example we set these ultimate destinations (pb’s), but along the way we should enjoy the journey. So my theme was about […]

When is the weather going to warm up. I arrived at 7am on the Monday with the rivers flooded due to the incessant rain we had over the weekend together with the gusting easterly winds. I had a quick look around and couldn’t believe I was the only angler on the lake. The problem they […]

Mick my tench fishing mate had a terrible time on Horseshoe last week. Not a bite for 3 days and nights. Him and his mate Lee didn’t see a single fish! I know it’s been hard. I had planned to fish for two days this week again for the tench. Winter bay was going to be […]