Ist Guiding session on the Bristol Avon for 2012-13 season

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 river had not been fishing particularly well over the first day or so although a 12lb barbel had come out together with a couple of others.

After meeting up we were soon on the river. First things were to bait up with some hemp via a bait dropper in a couple of swims where I had seen some good fish in the close season. The river was fining down from the previous weeks rain but still pushing through. This has got to be a good sign for the summer and flow and water levels.

Whilst we waited for the fish to get their heads down on the hemp I showed the guys some of the rigs that I use and a few knots that might help them in the future. The weather was hot and sunny a complete contrast to the last few weeks rains and winds.

Soon enough both were cast out in a couple of swims about 100 mts apart. The clarity was not particularly good however you could still make out cabbage patches and gravel runs reasonably well.

It was Luke who landed the first fish. I had moved down to his swim to see how things were going. And within a couple of minutes his rod lurched around and hey ho he was playing a nice chub of of exactly 4lbs.

So with Steve wanting to get in on the action we decided to move swims and try our luck downstream in a couple of likely spots. At first I showed them a couple of very good swims and then another where I had seen some barbel the previous week. As we looked in the clear run a couple of barbel were present and then at the back of some cabbages we saw a couple of nice chub with one that looked like a bream it was huge.

We decided that Steve would fish there. However as we looked at a couple of other swims we saw a couple of good barbel and about 10 chub in a good spot. Luke fished a swim that does hold some large chub and barbel, while we got Steve positioned in the swim containing the shoal of fish. Out went some hemp and sure enough the chub came to feed. We had lots of plucks and pulls but nothing positive. It was the by now mid afternoon and not the best period of the day to catch fish. Steve then changed to a lighter lead and quiver tip and first cast he caught a nice little chub of about 3lbs.

What a fantastic fish from the Bristol Avon. I see plenty of 6lb and 7lb chub from the Stour and H.Avon but this really is a great fish from the river.