Some people would find it strange but I enjoy sleeping in the wide boy bed chair in the back of the car. I just crack the window open to allow a good feed of air. I put the radio on and listen to radio 4 for a while, in fact one hour as the radio is on a timer.

I set the alarm for 6.45am where I can use the facilities in the local car park and then head to Andy Bowne’s Avon Angling for fresh supplies of maggots. Sometimes Martine is late in arriving but hey ho only by a few minutes.

I was in a real two and eight. Should I fish the Avon or the Stour. Someone once said to me that the Avon doesn’t fish well after frosts, so it was the Stour again.

This time I was second again in arriving to the car park. However I could see the angler downstream and away from where I was fishing. There was no frost this morning and the temperature was already 6c with a steady drizzle. I started in one swim where conditions looked great but the chub where not at home, or feeding. I gave it 90 minutes with out a touch. I tried another swim which is normally full of chub and again after 90 minutes trotting down nothing came along. So that was 3 hours wasted.

I decided to move downstream to some slightly deeper water of 4ft deep with a steady glide through. On the far bank was a willow with branches trailing in the river. This I thought would be the place to hid if I were a chub giving plenty of cover.

Having arrived at 11.30am I was soon firing the maggots out just upstream from the willow trying to entice the chub out from the entangled mass of branches. Nothing other than the odd minnow, and it was the odd one gave any indication of fish present. I had never fished the swim before but it looked sooooooooo good.

The aim was to trot the float as close to the willow as possible then if a chub took the bait then walk back into the field pulling it away from the snags.

Must be some great big rubber lips in there

Even though the temperatures had increased the wind had likewise and proved to problematical in trying to control the float as it passed downstream. Not perturbed I continued feeding the swim knowing it looked too good.

At 12.30 the float disappeared again where is shouldn’t have done. The strike met with very solid resistance and a pulling back. Swiftly I pulled as far as possible fearing for the hooklink the fish luckily came in my direction into mid river. Now it was mine, or so I thought as it powered towards the snag of the willow. More pressure and moving back into the field with the rod in a most impressive curve (parallel to the ground) and soon had it in midstream again. Luck was on my side.

You can never count on these most cunning of fish not to find a nearside snag or piece of weed and get loose.

After a good 3 or 4 minutes there she was laying in the net, mine!

It’s terrible when you need to put a weight on a fish but that’s the name of the game, 5lbs 9oz.

So that was it a good fish again on light tackle.

The next action came at 1pm when I hooked a small chub of about 2lbs.

Almost there!

Ready for the net

5lbs 2oz perfect chub a

I set my alarm at 6.45am which would give me sufficient time to sort myself out before taking the short journey  to Bournmouth and the D.Stour. I was soon up and ready to get fresh supplies of maggots from Avon Angling in Ringwood. I get there at 7.10am and Martine hasn’t arrived just yet to open […]

I had my chances to travel to Oxfordshire to fish Willow lake for a couple of days for the roach, however with reports coming back from two friends that 2 or 3 days each and no bites gave me a hint that I should be traveling south to the D. Stour and the H.Avon. The […]

The rain from Tuesday had pushed the river very high and cleared the debris of the last 11 months. I arrived at 8am just as the sun was rising. There was a very slight frost clinging onto vegetation in certain area’s of the fields but not enough to spoil the fishing I’m sure. On arriving […]

Happy New year to all who read this. Let your rods catch you plenty of big fish this year. Having be moaned the fact that the river hadn’t had a flush through since last February I was woken last night with the rain pounding on the bedroom window. The storm raged for what seemed ages […]

I just can’t believe that this is the first time out for weeks. The Xmas period has been one of many emergencies or another, travelling up and down from Bath to Taunton with Dad in hospital plus all the normal associated things with looking after Mum and then the festive season parties. I’ve also had […]

Went out for a couple of hours on Monday after pike from 2-30-4.30pm and didn’t have a take. Although I did see a few pike swirl on the surface nothing was interested in my dead roach and herring baits. I’m pleased I packed away at 4.30 as the rain really poured all night and for […]

It’s been a while since I’ve been out fishing mainly to do with something to do with helping out the other half with shopping for Xmas. It didn’t stop there either as I dismantled my old summer house and put a log cabin in the garden. So the electrics had to be done plus moving […]

I was going to fish for the day today but at the last minute yesterday I ended up at Watford watching Bristol City. Not the best match in the world but still unbeaten in 6 games now and a 2-2 draw see’s us out of the relegation zone. So I was up later than planned. […]

Gerry had contacted me to learn how to catch pike and more importantly how to handle and unhook them on the bank. We had a couple of days to do this. Gerry is primarily a fly fisherman. He sometimes fly fishes for bass in Ireland something I’ve not done before. He clearly enjoys his fishing. […]