Wednesday 14 December 2011

Personal Best River Roach!

An accidental meeting with a mate of mine, 'Welsh' Simon, in a Morrison's check out queue led to the capture of a personal best Roach from the Avon. He has recently converted to the dark side (match fishing) and he told me about a swim on the lower Avon that he has been nailing some big Roach from. Match fishermen are not as secretive as specimen anglers so had no problem giving me the exact swim, bait etc. I owe him a beer or several.
I stopped off at the garage and bought a fresh loaf of sliced white Warburton's (other makes are available) and wandered down to the peg in question. My confidence was at a low following a recent poor run of fishing results plus I have not fished with bread for many years but that was about to change.
I mashed some bread, threw three golf ball sized lumps into the middle and then fished open feeder, simple running rig to a size 8 paste hook with bread flake for bait. To say I was shocked to get a bite first cast is an understatement. I played it very carefully and after a good fight landed a Roach.
I knew before netting it that it was a pb but exactly what would it weigh?
Am I happy with that!
I didn't think they grew anywhere near that size in the Avon but apparently there are quite a few in the right stretches.
I fished on and had a few bites but did not connect to any more fish. Needless to say but I will be back for more.

Thursday 1 December 2011

Chub, Warks Avon.

Only a couple of spare hours in the whole of this week so I grabbed a rod, a net, a few bits and a tin of luncheon meat and headed for the river. The weather was pretty dire, windy and wet but I managed to catch a Chub and lose a Barbel.
At 3lb 6oz it wasn't the biggest I have ever caught but very welcome. The Barbel I lost managed to transfer the hook into weed which really should not be there at this time of year. We have certainly had some strange weather this year!